Lancaster Country Day’s District Three Class 2A team title highlighted the girls tennis season for the Lancaster-Lebanon League this fall.
The Cougars went 17-2, with their only losses coming to L-L champion Hempfield and Cathedral Prep in the PIAA quarterfinals.
They dominated in the district tournament, winning by scores of 5-0, 3-0 and 5-0. They entered as the No. 2 seed and, surprisingly, ended up facing fifth seed Berks Catholic in the final. The Saints upset both fourth-seeded Wyomissing and No. 1 seed Conrad Weiser.
The L-L’s success this season more or less ended in districts. The PIAA Championships featured five entrants in singles and doubles along with three teams, but only two of those — Country Day and the Manheim Township doubles team of Haley and Jade Miller — managed to win a match at states.
While only the Cougars won district gold, there obviously was other success.
There were two District Three runner-up finishes. Country Day’s Sienna Castelli, just a sophomore, was looking for back-to-back 2A singles titles. But she ran into a powerful Emma Perkins of Conrad Weiser, who steamrolled the field, including Castelli, winning 6-0, 6-0.
Perkins, who played doubles instead of singles last year, went on to finish second in the state. She lost to defending champion Ilana Rosenthal of Wyoming Seminary by a surprisingly lopsided score of 6-1, 6-0. Castelli lost to Rosenthal in the first round of states.
Also garnering silver was Manheim Township in the 3A team bracket. The Blue Streaks, who had their six-year run of district titles ended last year by New Oxford in a gut-wrenching 3-2 loss, again lost to the Colonials, this time 5-0. Township (13-4) also lost to them by the same score early in the regular season.
Also earning spots in the PIAA tourney by virtue of their district finishes were the Millers, who placed third in Class 3A doubles; Lancaster Country Day’s Sophia Babar, who was third in 2A singles, and teammates Monica Lopez and Delanie Edwards, who were third in doubles; and Hempfield’s Sophie Carson and Alex Gregory, who were fourth in Class 3A doubles, and the Hempfield team, which was also fourth.
The Millers lost to Michelle Lerman and Anya Zubenko of Council Rock South, who ended up finishing second.
The district sent the top four finishers in 3A and top three in 2A to states.
One of the biggest surprises of the season came in the L-L team tournament. There, Hempfield knocked off Manheim Township 3-2 in the final, ending the Streaks’ string of L-L titles at eight. The Black Knights (15-5) defeated Country Day in the semifinals for the Cougars’ first loss of the season.
Not as surprising was Castelli’s repeat as L-L Class 2A champion, defeating Babar in a hotly-contested match, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Lopez was third and Edwards fourth as LCD took the top four spots.
Castelli defeated Lopez in last year’s final. Babar did not play tennis last season.
There was going to be a new Class 3A champion after Penn Manor’s Catherine Rabatin graduated last year having won four titles. Stepping into the role was Conestoga Valley sophomore Jada Flores, who defeated Township’s Haley Miller 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 to complete an undefeated run through L-L competition.
Miller defeated Flores in three sets last year for third place.
Miller repeated as 3A doubles champion, but with a different partner. She won with Kayla Kurtz last year, but teamed with her sister this year, defeating Carson and Gregory 6-4, 6-0.
It again was an all-Country Day final in 2A doubles, with Castelli and Babar defeating Lopez and Edwards 8-4.
Despite Hempfield winning the L-L team title, it was again Manheim Township taking Section One, defeating the Knights 5-2 and handling the rest of its section rivals with relative ease. Country Day, with its undefeated regular season, also had an easy time in winning Section Three.
Section Two was a little different, with things not nearly so clear-cut. There, Elizabethtown emerged with the title, defeating defending champion Manheim Central 4-3 on the last day of the regular season.
But Solanco, which finished a surprising third, and Lampeter-Strasburg, which was fourth, were hardly pushovers. All finished with double-digit wins, E-town going 12-4, Central 11-5, Solanco 10-5 and L-S 10-4.
Runner-up in Section Three was Annville-Cleona, which finished 9-4 overall.
