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Kruthi Ramanath doesn’t play many high school girls’ tennis matches.

Mainly because the school she attends, Uni High, doesn’t have a girls’ tennis team.

Yet Ramanath found herself in an excellent position on Friday afternoon: playing in the IHSA Class 1A state semifinals.

The Uni High sophomore, however, won’t get the chance to become the first girls’ tennis player representing the Illineks to win a state title. Paola Almeda of Chicago University High topped Ramanath 6-2, 6-2 on Friday in the state semifinals. Ramanath won her first three matches at the state tournament on Thursday and then beat Meredith Converse from Benet in a 6-4, 6-2 victory in the quarterfinals earlier on Friday.

“Paola is definitely an amazing opponent,” Ramanath told The News-Gazette on Friday afternoon. “She took away everything I had. It was a little tough to have that loss, but I’m still proud that I got here.”

Ramanath will spend the rest of Friday recovering and relaxing before she plays in the third-place match at 8 a.m. Saturday.

Either way, she’ll return to Champaign County with the first state medal won by a Uni High girls’ tennis player.

“I’m definitely thrilled with how I’ve done this tournament,” said Rumanath, who reached the quarterfinals last year as a freshman before bowing out in the consolation semifinals. “All my hard work has paid off, and it just feels so much better to improve on what I did last year.”