Hinsdale Central’s Lauren Panveno and Sophia Virmani take second in state after tough draw in 2024

BY JEFF VORVA

In 2024, the Hinsdale Central tennis doubles team of Lauren Panveno and Sophia Virmani had the worst luck of the draw as you possibly could have.

The Illinois High School Association follows a format in which they seed the top 16 entrants, and the rest of the field is paired up randomly. The Red Devil duo was not in the top 16 seeds in Class 2A, and as fate would have it, their first-round opponent was top-seeded Keri Rothenberg-Ariane Lesterhuis of New Trier.

The Central players lost in the first round 6-1, 6-0.

“That was like a quarterfinal or semifinal match taking place in the first round,” Hinsdale coach Shwana Zsinko said.

The New Trier team won the state championship, and the Panveno-Virmani team won three consolation matches before falling in the fourth round of consolation.

That brings us to 2025.

Redemption time.

Panveno, a senior, and Virmani, a sophomore, were seeded second and lived up to the billing, finishing second, falling to top-seeded Riley and Reese Lepsi of Wheaton Warrenville South, 6-0, 6-2.

“We wanted to make sure we maximized our opportunity this year because of the unfortunate draw we got last year,” Virmani, a Clarendon Hills resident, said. “We needed to make the most of this opportunity.

“I feel like we complemented each other very well, and it’s something our coach would tell us a lot.”

— Lauren Panveno, on her tennis partner Sophia Virmani

“I think we knew we could get this far, but we had to make sure we had good days, and all of the factors were in our favor.”

Hinsdale Central’s Lauren Panveno and Sophia Virmani embrace during a season in which they took second in the state in tennis.
Photo courtesy of Tracy Virmani

Panveno, a Hinsdale resident, was ready for this meet in October to try to erase the past disappointment.

“We definitely used it as motivation because the draw that we got last year wasn’t the draw we necessarily deserved,” she said. “We started playing late in the season, and the seeding is based on your record. Since we didn’t play that many matches together, we didn’t have the ability to get seeded. It was the toughest match we could have gotten.

“This year was our way of proving we didn’t deserve to play that match, and that was definitely motivation. At the start of this year, we started playing right off the bat, and that helped us build up a record, and that allowed us to get that high of a placing at state.”

The Red Devils finished second in the state. Panveno-Virmani were named first-team all-state. Sidney Shuster and Oak Brook’s Anika Sari also finished first-team all-state and singles player Julianna Radonjic was third team all-state.

Zsinko, also an Oak Brook resident, said that putting Panveno and Virmani together later in the season than she would like in 2024 hurt their chances, but she liked what she saw out of them in 2025.

This year, it kind of settled into place little sooner and we came in with a plan and that’s probably the biggest difference between last year and this year,” Zsinko said. “They worked hard and they were very focused this season. They really wanted to get that win in the finals. But at the end of the day they had a good run.”

Hinsdale Central’s Lauren Panveno (from left), coach Shwana Zsinko and Sophia Virmani pose after the IHSA state tournament.
Photo courtesy of Tracy Vermani

Panveno is looking at a college that will offer tennis as well as marketing and sports communication degrees. If that doesn’t work out, she said she will continue to play club tennis.

Virmani has two more years to play in high school, and after the Red Devils finished third in the state in 2024 and second in 2025, she is hoping they can take one more step up the ladder in the coming seasons.

Panveno treasured her time being a partner with Virmani.

“I feel like we complemented each other very well, and it’s something our coach would tell us a lot,” she said. “We never felt like there was a weaker link. We’ve both had our moments of being amazing and moments where we would make a few errors. But I just feel like we’ve been good at staying positive and keeping each other calm and supporting each other even when we make mistakes.”