Upper St. Clair duo wins Class 3A doubles crown
Tri-State Sports & News Service
Upper St. Clair’s Kevin Kwok and Liam Gibbons might have been the No. 2 seed in the WPIAL Class 3A doubles tournament, but they did not have an easy path to reach the finals.
They were, in fact, down at one point in the quarterfinals and semifinals before they took the court Friday at The Club Sport and Health in Monroeville for the championship against Hampton’s Ben Ringeisen and Ted Donegan. And the eighthseeded Talbots didn’t give them any quarter, either.
In the end, though, Kwok and Gibbons had enough to pull out a 7-6 (6-2), 6-4 victory against Ringeisen and Donegan to give the Panthers their first WPIAL doubles title since 2007.
“We were down a lot in the first set, and they were playing really well, but then we had a really good serve and we were really good at net,” Kwok said. “I was really happy and I know our coach [Ron Mercer] was really happy as well.”
Kwok and Gibbons did not have to face returning WPIAL finalists and topseeded Naman Dua and Tanay Kumta of Shady Side Academy after that duo withdrew from the tournament Thursday. Kumta underwent an emergency appendectomy.
Without them, however, Upper St. Clair still had to face a myriad of challenges. They were pushed to the brink in the quarterfinals By defending champion Richard Hofmann of North Allegheny and his new partner, Ivan Voinov, in an 11-9 proset win, then were down a set to third-place finishers Ben Vinarski and Sid Iyer of Pine-Richland before pulling out a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory in the semifinals.
Things were a little easier in Class 2A, though, as Sewickley Academy senior Ryan Gex became the first player in any classification to win four WPIAL doubles titles as he paired with Neil Rana for a 6-0, 6-1 victory against John Monroe and Josh Wohar of California. Gex teamed with Luke Vith to win the 2014 championship and was paired with his brother, Don, each of the past two years.
Rana was a third-place finisher in the WPIAL doubles tournament last year. In their title run, Gex and Rana lost a total of four games in their three matches.
It is the eighth consecutive year that a team from Sewickley Academy has won the Class 2A doubles title and twice, in 2010 and 2015, it was an all-Panthers final.