Blackhawk strong again
Over the past three years the Blackhawk High School boys tennis team has been virtually untouchable in section play.
Not only have the Cougars rolled undefeated through Section 2 each of the past two seasons, they went into their match Thursday against Quaker Valley at 7-0 and in first place as they prepared for another run to the WPIAL Class AA team playoffs.
“We’ve been fortunate to have success over the past several seasons in our section,” Blackhawk coach Nathan Lowery said. “I think it comes down to parents being willing to invest in their children because, when I get players at the high school level, the most successful are the ones who have had lessons in the past and I’ve been fortunate to have at least one or
two of those players.”
This season’s Cougars are no different as junior Jonah Cooper has received independent on-court tutoring and has played in several tournaments outside the area. Cooper also won the Section 2 singles title this year and made it into the second round of the WPIAL singles tournament before losing to eventual runner-up Sam Sauter of Sewickley Academy, 10-5, in a pro-set format match.
“It gives Jonah a lot of confidence knowing that he can hang with and compete with some of the best kids in the WPIAL,” Lowery said. “He’s had experience playing with college-level players already and, although he’s had experience winning in our section, he’s also experienced being defeated by better players, so he knows what that feels like and has a good enough sense of his game to know what he needs to keep working on to better perform the next time.”
Having a player of Cooper’s caliber in the No. 1 spot will only help as Blackhawk heads into the team tournament, which is slated to open sometime after the regular season ends next Monday. The WPIAL tennis committee will then determine where each team falls in the bracket, but there is no doubt that the Cougars are hoping for a better draw than last year when they were seeded fourth and had to play Sewickley Academy in the semifinals.
Sewickley Academy is the gold standard by which all other WPIAL Class AA tennis programs are judged. The Panthers have won the past 11 Class AA titles and 19 of the 22 since the classification was added in 1993, which makes intimidation a real factor when their opponents take the court.
“You just really hope not to have to face them until the semifinals because, at that point, you still have a chance of reaching the states by winning the consolation,” Lowery said. “Most of the teams in the WPIAL are really fighting for second and third place in the team tournament to make states.”
That was exactly what happened to Blackhawk in 2014. But after losing to Sewickley Academy, 5-0, in the semifinals, the team dropped a disappointing 5-0 match to Valley and failed to make it to the PIAA tournament at Hershey Racquet Club.
This year, however, Blackhawk might be able to finally break through and earn one of the three coveted team slots. Valley is down quite a bit from last year and Mars Area, which finished second to Sewickley Academy a year ago, moved up to Class AAA.
That could mean improved seeding for the Cougars, possibly as high as No. 2, and might be a precursor to a showdown for the title with the Panthers with a state berth already in the bag.
“We’d like to see it that way, but you never know how the WPIAL committee will seed players and teams,” Lowery said. “We hope to get one of the top six spots to set it up so that we don’t have to play Sewickley Academy before the semifinals.”