ROCHELLE — Success at the doubles courts was what fueled the Rochelle Lady Hub varsity tennis team during its nonconference home match against Sterling on Wednesday evening.

After winning two road matches earlier this season, Rochelle earned its first home win of the year on Wednesday evening, when the Lady Hubs swept all three varsity doubles matches to secure a 3-2 victory over the Golden Warriors. Seniors Catherine Williams and Erin Murphy locked down the first match point for the Lady Hubs (3-7, 1-2 Interstate 8), cruising for a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Sterling’s Emma Pham and Christina Mata at the No. 1 doubles court. 

“It was a really good win for Erin and I because we had lost our first two matches this week,” Williams said. “Erin and I realized pretty quickly that she was getting more of her net shots in and I was better behind, so she was moving up closer to the net and I was staying behind. Erin and I like to be goofy, but we also know when to be serious. We’re always singing when we’re on the court and that keeps us moving. We have a lot of positivity when we’re on the court.”

Action then turned to the No. 2 doubles court, where Rochelle seniors Abby Metzger and Lauren Dyer faced off against Sterling’s Sadie Hendrix and Avery Moran. The Lady Hubs overcame a first-set defeat, winning the second set handily before outlasting the Golden Warrior duo in the tiebreaking third set to claim another match point with a 3-6, 6-2, 10-6 victory.

“We struggled with some difficult matches early in the week, but we pulled together and got the win,” Metzger said. “Our success came from ourselves. We made a lot of mistakes in the first set, but we discovered pretty early on what our opponents’ weaknesses were and we were able to capitalize on those. We kept all of our serves in and we were playing on the offensive side. Lauren and I have known each other for a long time and we work well together because of how easily we communicate. We always have the mindset that we want to work hard for every win.”

The Lady Hubs clinched their win over the Golden Warriors with a victory at the No. 3 doubles court, where seniors Natalie Wagner and Sydney Carmichael also found themselves fighting back from a first-set deficit. The Rochelle combo was undeterred, however, as the girls held off Sterling’s Kenzie Dir and Caylee Lyons in the second set before scoring a third-set victory to win the match 3-6, 6-4, 10-4. Rochelle’s next match is at home against Boylan on Monday evening.

“It felt really good to win because we finally had the confidence to finish strong,” Wagner said. “We knew we needed that win to finish the match. Sydney and I kept hyping each other up and we work really well with each other. We go for the ball as much as we can so the other player isn’t relied on all of the time. Sydney and I get along really well and we’ve been friends since elementary school. When we got to play together, we knew that we would do well.”

Sterling took both singles matches on Wednesday evening. Seniors Yaretzi Villalobos and Kendyl Darby earned the starts for the Lady Hubs, with Villalobos falling 0-6, 0-6 against Ellie Aitken at the No. 1 court and Darby falling 2-6, 2-6 against Fareeda Alkhalaf at the No. 2 court.