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Despite loss of five starters, Sewickley Academy girls tennis looking to return to top

Despite loss of five starters, Sewickley Academy girls tennis looking to return to top

Sewickley Academy was two points away from winning its fourth consecutive WPIAL Class 2A team tennis title before Knoch’s Brooke Bauer rallied for four points in a row in a third-set tiebreaker to give the Knights their first championship.

That was how the Panthers season ended.

“I think everyone was really proud of what we did last year considering that we even had a season — the getting back to the playoffs and then not having Evelyn Safar [who transferred to North Allegheny], who had been the No. 1 player for three years,” Sewickley Academy coach Whitney Snyder said. “Our girls just said it was somebody else’s turn and they responded really well then and I think they’re responding really well now.”

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After that match, the Panthers lost five starters, but have a host of athletes ready to step in and fill the void.

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“They’re looking great. ... We have 30 girls out for tennis, which is the biggest victory considering we’re such a small school,” Snyder said. “That is just a huge number when you consider, as coaches, we’re supposed to be creating interest in the sport. I’m just really proud of that.”

It’s not just that Sewickley Academy has a lot of girls out for the team. The Panthers return sophomore Ashley Close, who lost that three-set, three-plus-hour thriller to Bauer in the No. 2 singles match last year and has now taken on the mantle at No. 1.

In addition, freshman Kirsten Close, Ashley’s sister, is tentatively slotted in at No. 2 singles, while senior Mila Ivanova has moved from the No. 1 doubles slot to No. 3 singles.

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As far as doubles, though, that remains a work in progress, which puts the Panthers a little bit behind the eight ball as they continue into the season in search of a trip to the team finals at Washington & Jefferson for their fourth title in five years.

“There are still a lot of internal challenge matches left to play and the rain didn’t do us any favors the first week, but here you are,” Snyder said. “Here we are into Week 3 and we’re still out there playing challenge matches.”

Upper St. Clair

At one point in time, Upper St. Clair was the most dominant school in high school girls tennis and it appeared the Panthers were headed back that way again last year.

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That was until upstart Latrobe pulled out a 4-1 victory against them in the championship match at Bethel Park.

This year, however, Upper St. Clair has almost everybody back, including No. 1 Maggie Steif, and will once again be looking for its 15th team title and first since 2003.

“Other than Maggie, it seems like my singles could go back and forth,” Upper St. Clair coach Renee Connors said. “It’s a good thing and a bad thing.”

Upper St. Clair has a pair at No. 1 doubles in Leah Lund and Hope Krawczyk who have played together for a while, but that could change given the fact the ladder requirements could partner them up with other players.

“They’ve been playing together since their freshman year and they had played at second doubles forever,” Connors said. “But whenever I have to mix them up and put somebody else in, they’re [not happy] so I told them we have to rotate because we have four really good singles players.”

Claire Loomis, Evie Ellenberger and Shanning Zhou are all vying for those two singles spots behind Steif, but so far, things are going Upper St. Clair’s way. The team came into the week undefeated, including wins against perennial contenders Fox Chapel and North Allegheny and, with a solid lineup laden with carryovers from last year, this could be the unit that ends the school’s 18-year drought.

First Published: September 3, 2021, 10:00 a.m.

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