GIRLS TENNIS SINGLES/DOUBLES ROUNDUP: Two more district titles for AH, one for Prep
CLARKS SUMMIT — Susan Arp recovered from a three-game deficit in the first set and went on to capture her third straight District 2 Class 3A girls tennis singles title Oct. 14 at the Birchwood Tennis and Fitness Center with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Crestwood's Hannah Ziegler.
Arp won 12 of the final 15 games after falling behind 3-0 and 4-1 in the first set.
"I started lobbing and mixing up the pace and keeping her moving forward and backward," Arp said. "I kind of toned down my own stuff on going for winners."
The familiarity of two previous district tournament matches against Ziegler proved helpful.
"She plays a really good game," Arp said. "She has super strong ground strokes. She's definitely a baseline player, but she's tall so she's really good at the net and serving, too."
Both Abington Heights and Scranton Prep had two semifinalists out of the four players remaining in their classes following three rounds of tournament play Oct. 11 at Wilkes University and Kirby Park.
Ziegler defeated Abington Heights' Rona Hanumali 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 in the semifinals. Starting at the same time, but finishing much earlier, Arp cruised through a 6-1, 6-0 win over Wallenpaupack's Sarah Niemiec.
"It was a long day," Ziegler said.
Both Scranton Prep players fell in the semifinals.
Alyssa Wigley lost 6-0, 6-1 to Wyoming Seminary's Ilana Rosenthal, who was working her way toward state and district titles for the third straight year.
Lily Lengyel was eliminated by then-unbeaten Montrose sophomore Cara Evans, 6-4, 6-2.
Arp lost just one game in four sets on the first day of the tournament.
Hanumali, the sixth seed, matched Arp's 6-0, 6-0 start, then knocked off third-seeded Nicole Holderith from Delaware Valley 7-5, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
District 2 doubles
Abington Heights and Scranton Prep added to their District 2 girls tennis gold medal collections Oct. 18 at Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre.
Hanumali-Mary Booth from Abington Heights and Lengyel-Wigley from Scranton Prep each repeated as champions when the last two rounds of the two-day doubles tournament were played.
Hanumali-Booth completed an Abington Heights sweep of the team, singles and doubles titles.
Lengyel-Wigley won an all-Scranton Prep championship match.
Hanumali-Booth defeated Wallenpaupack's Sara Niemiec-Alaina Burka 7-5, 6-3 to reach the Class 3A final where they beat Delaware Valley's Holderith-Jessica Willison 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Lengyel-Wigley topped Tunkhannock's Molly Keiser-Addy Pineau 6-0, 6-1in the semifinals, then defeated teammates Emma Cuck-Ella Cohen 6-1, 6-1.
Cuck-Cohen had defeated Montrose's Cara Evans-Harleigh Smith 7-5, 6-3 in the semifinals.
State tournament
Lengyel-Wigley reached the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state quarterfinals in Hershey before having their season end Nov. 1.
The Scranton Prep team defeated Brea Kelley-Katie Hardy from Pittsburgh North Catholic 6-1, 6-0 before losing to eventual state champion Hannah Kideckel-Rebecca Kideckel from Lower Moreland 6-3, 6-4.
The Abington Heights entries were knocked out in the first round of Class 3A singles and doubles.
Arp fell to Downingtown East's Brianna Litvan 6-0, 6-2 and Hanumali-Booth lost to Council Rock South's Kim Chen-Ava Bograd 6-2, 7-5.
