Experience is key for Fox Chapel
Fox Chapel has won the WPIAL Class 3A boys team tennis title each of the past two years, but the Foxes have found tough sledding once they made it to Hershey Racquet Club for thestate tournament.
In 2016, Fox Chapel made it all the way to the finals before losing to District 1 champion Lower Merion, 3-0, in the title match. Last year, the Foxes didn’t make it that far as they were upended, 3-1, by District 1 third-place finisher Great Valley.
Thisyear, however, Fox Chapel is looking for a much different outcome.
“When you have experience it makes a whole lot of difference,” Fox Chapel coach Alex Slezak said. “We have a routine set up where to practice, we know where to stay, we have places to eat. We have the routine set upso it makes it a lot easier.”
Lower Merion has had a stranglehold on the PIAA Class 3A title for the past three years, but Fox Chapel’s experience extends well beyond just knowing what to expect when it gets to Hershey. The Foxes havea group of players, including its top singles players in juniors Robby Shymansky and Jared Nord, who will be making their third trip and have played in these types of matches for the past three seasons.
“Pressure makes diamonds and these kids have been under pressure all three years and, hopefully, they’ll turn into diamonds this year,” Slezak said. “Maybe the experience is enough, but there are a lot of great teams in Pennsylvania like Great Valley, who we lost to last year and Lower Merion is always tough.”
Fox Chapel may have the upper hand as being the most recent team to have faced an eastern opponent, butthe other WPIAL representative, Shady Side Academy, also has a solid history in the state finals. The Indians are, in fact, the most recent WPIAL team to win a state championship and did so in 2014.
Though they don’t have any players remaining from that squad that defeated Conestoga, 3-2, they have a solid lineup featuring Naman Dua and Colin Gramley, who won the Section 3 doubles title and are the team’ stop two singles players.
Class 2A
Indiana has finished second in the WPIAL each of the past three years and, in their first two appearances, the Little Indians had the same fate befall them.
Both times, Indiana won the Tuesday qualifier — in 2016 it was against District 5 champion Bedford and last year it was District 9 representative Punxsutawney — only to fall in its first match in Hershey. Their first time the Little Indians dropped a 3-2 decision to Bishop Guilfoyle out of District 6 and last year it was a 3-0 loss to Lancaster Country Day from District 3.
Thisyear, Indiana will once again get the District 5 champion in the opening round of the tournament on Tuesday for the chance to make it back to Hershey for its third consecutive appearance.
“We’ll go anywhere and our mantra is ‘We’ll travel’ because there’s nothing around us,” Indiana coach Phil Palko said. “We’ll have some good practices and, heck, we made it [to the WPIAL team finals] without practicing all year, so this will be new thing.”
Sewickley Academy will head into the state tournament for the 15th consecutive time as the top seed from the WPIAL and is the two-time defending state champion. The Panthers did not lose a singles match in the playoffs a year ago and the only one they dropped in the WPIAL tournament was a forfeit at No.1 doubles when a player had a wedding to attend that conflicted with the team finals because of a weather delay.
South Park, which won the WPIAL third-place consolation match, 3-2, against Quaker Valley, will also be in action Tuesday when the Eagles take on the District 10 champions.