FOX CHAPEL’S JAMES AIMS FOR SCHOOL FIRST
Charlotte James knows all about winning a championship at Hershey Racquet Club.
She has already done it twice.
This time, though, when the Fox Chapel senior makes her way eastward for the PIAA Class 3A finals, it won’t be as a member of a Foxes doubles team. She’ll be on her own.
“I think, even within the WPIAL and being the favorite in some matches, people are always playing their best tennis against you because they have nothing to lose,” James said. “So, dealing with that in my junior tennis career and in high school has prepared me to handle it better.”
James is the first Fox Chapel singles player to win a WPIAL Class 3A title and is looking to become the first to win a state championship. But some of the toughest competition that stands in her way are players she has gotten to know very well as two of them play in her section.
Baldwin senior Bethany Yauch, who lost to James in the WPIAL finals, will be making her second consecutive appearance in the state finals as the No. 2 seed out of District 7 and will once again face the City League champion in the first round. This year it will be Lauren Armant of Obama Academy.
To earn a rematch with James, both would have to make it all the way through to the finals. James will open the tournament with District 3 third-place finisher Caroline Corcoran of Hershey, the No. 23 junior in the state.
“It would be awesome because I love playing Charlotte because she’s such a good competitor,” Yauch said. “I would love to get that far. That would be amazing to face her again in the state finals because that would be an amazing match.”
Before making it to the final, there is a chance Yauch could also face another Section 4 foe, Bethel Park sophomore Mia Gorman, who was the thirdplace finisher in the WPIAL.
Gorman, who was also the consolation match winner in 2018, lost in the first round of the state finals to District 1 champion Neha Velaga of North Penn. This time around, she will once again face the District 1 champion, but it will be either Amelia Honer of Council Rock North, who is the No. 2 junior in the state behind North Allegheny’s Ava Catanzarite and who lost in the semifinals last year to the Tigers’ Ashley Huang, or Caitlin Le of Souderton, the No. 8 senior in the state who lost in the first round a year ago.
A WPIAL singles player has been in the state championship match every year since 2002 and the district has won 13 titles in that time. Of those matches, three were between two WPIAL players and, in all three instances, the reigning WPIAL champion won.
Class 2A
Laura Greb is very familiar with playing at Hershey Racquet Club.
She has been there twice before as the WPIAL Class 2A singles champion and has gotten a feel for what it takes to play in that venue.
“I’m just training hard. I’ve been up there, so I’m just working on the little things that need tweaked here and there,” the Knoch junior said. “I’m just working on the part of my game that needs worked on.”
Greb made it all the way to the semifinals last year before losing a 6-3, 7-5 decision to Brenna Magliochetti of Bethlehem Catholic and dropping a 61, 7-5 decision to Olivia Dorner of South Williamsport.
Magliochetti won’t be back but Dorner, now a sophomore, was the top seed heading into the District 4 tournament earlier this week. Greb will see the District 4 runner-up in the first round.
Greb’s teammate, junior Brooke Bauer, will have a tough draw as the WPIAL runner-up as she will take on District 6 champion Alyssa Kush of Westmont Hilltop in the first round. Kush, the No. 8 sophomore in the state, defeated Sewickley Academy’s Simran Bedi in the first round last year before losing to Dorner in the quarterfinals.
Nicole Hampton of South Park, the third-place finisher, will be making her first appearance in singles at the state finals and will debut against District 9 champion Samantha Hayes of St. Marys Area. Last year, Hayes lost to Bauer, 6-0, 6-0, in the first round.