It’s been a special season for the Parkland girls tennis team.
The Trojans added to their collection of titles with a District 11-3A doubles title at Lehigh University in Bethlehem on Thursday.
Freshman Sadie Pollard and sophomore Sonia Lee teamed up to defeat Nazareth’s duo of Sophia DiGiacinto and Lydia Moyer 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
In 2A action Moravian Academy’s second-seeded pair of Vicky Guo and Laura Li upset the top seeds Maddie Groff and Val Munoz of Allentown Central Catholic by a score of 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
All District 11 champions qualified for the PIAA Tournament, which will take place Friday, Oct. 31 at the Hershey Racquet Club.
“I am still shaking,” said Pollard of the doubles championship in her first year.
Lexie Warsing already won the singles title, while the Trojans also captured the EPC regular-season and tournament titles. Not bad for first-year head coach Candace Young.
“My mentality is just keep going,” Young said. “It’s been amazing, but it’s all credit to the girls. They keep fighting. It’s what I keep telling them to do, fight every single point. They had to really fight back from behind today. We didn’t have that pressure coming into it. I am just so proud that they did fight back and then that third set 6-1.”
One week ago Lee and Pollard were fighting for a spot in the District 11-3A singles finals.
Thursday they were in a tussle with the Blue Eagles after dropping the first set 6-3. DiGiacinto can be unnerving to play with her underhand second serves and ferocious forehands off the ground.
However, that first set came down to just one break of serve.
“Our communication was a little off, we weren’t in sync,” Lee said. “We started celebrating our efforts and being more positive, having a positive mindset was really important. I think we had a lot of momentum and we just kept going. We disrupted their momentum.”
The second set was a back and forth affair with Lee and Pollard settling down a bit. The Trojans freshman, who came via Alabama this year, eventually held serve to pull out the 6-4 set.
Parkland ran away with the third set, breaking Moyer in the fourth game and never looking back.
At one point the Trojans won 12 consecutive games.
“Honestly, we were just hyping each other up,” Pollard said. “After the second set we said, ‘We can do this’. We had all the momentum.”
In 2A action at the same time, Groff and Munoz were too tough in a physical first set which saw them take it home 6-3.
The second set was more of the same until Munoz, Guo and Groff were all broken to end the set 6-4 in Moravian’s favor.
“I think Vicky and I would take moments, look at each other and just calm down,” Li said. “We would think about the next point and get that done. Our coach [Rick Smith] always tells us to have a memory of a goldfish. We just had to put any mistakes behind us.”
In the third set the Vikings used a tactical change in putting Groff completely on the baseline in an attempt to bash the Moravian duo off court. That led to a back and forth start to the set, which was tied at 3-3 after six games.
“We just said, ‘Keep it away from Maddie’, but also be more offensive,” said Li. “They wereintimidated so they made that move.”
The match came down to the seventh game with Guo serving. What transpired was a five-deuce battle that she didn’t finish until coming up with a down-the-line backhand winner.
“If I miss my first serve sometimes pretty badly I look to the next court and say come on,” Guo said. “Then my second serve goes in. I was considering giving up that game. If I double fault this I thought, ‘I am going to throw my racquet against my bag.’ Good thing that didn’t happen. It’s just the mentality of going point after point.”
Moravian was able to capture the final two games and got a measure of revenge with the 6-3 victory. The ACC duo won last year and this was Li’s first title in her fourth try.
After Gasser won the 2A title a week ago this sets up an interesting week ahead in team districts with these two squads likely to face off again.
“We had so little confidence walking into this match,” Guo said. “Even playing our own team we were nervous. We dropped a couple of games because we were so nervous. Going into teams we have more confidence. At least two people qualified for states. I hope our whole team does amazing.”
In the 3A semifinals, Nazareth dispatched a tough Stroudsburg duo of Vasoula Skarlis and Ava Marsh by a score of 6-4, 7-6 (6). Lee and Pollard coasted past Liberty’s pair of Corinne Mumma and Sarah Wang, 6-1, 6-1. In 2A, ACC’s Groff and Munoz defeated teammates Giada Montone and Julia Janis 6-1, 6-2, while Moravian’s Li and Guo won 6-3, 6-0 over teammates Anika Mehta and Kim Kiuchi.
“It feels great,” said Lee of the season. “It’s a lot of hard work for sure.”
Dan Arkans is a freelance writer.