Balanced Fox Chapel prevails for 3A crown
Scores 5-0 win vs. Shady Side; QV claims 2A
Fox Chapel flew under the radar throughout the season, but there were signs this is a team that should not be counted out.
“When we played Shady Side Academy, it was our first match back from spring break and they hadn’t picked up a racquet for a week,” Fox Chapel boys tennis coach Alex Slezak said. “But I’m not the kind of coach who is going to duck competition, so I said we were going to play them.”
Play them they did. And the Foxes were dealt a 4-1 loss to the Bulldogs that decided the Section 3 title.
Boy, did they make up for it.
Fox Chapel jumped out to a quick lead when Mason Friday and Travis Malone won the No. 1 doubles match in straight sets and Jack Delaney and Ben Hallman made it a sweep at No. 2. The Foxes didn’t stop there as they came away with a stunning 5-0 victory over fourthseeded Shady Side Academy at Washington & Jefferson to win its fifth WPIAL Class 3A title in the last six years.
But this was a completely different team than the ones that rolled to four consecutive championships from 2016-19. Those had dominant singles players in Robby Shymansky and Sidd Rajupet, where this squad is a team in every sense.
Fox Chapel did not have any individual play in a section final, yet the Foxes still won it all..
“Tennis, oftentimes, the individual becomes bigger than the program,” Slezak said. “These guys have been friends forever and they really do play for something bigger than their own individual things.”
Class 2A
Quaker Valley senior Will Sirianni asked his twin brother Mike for some tips on how to play against North Catholic’s Brody Golla.
“He gave me insight into where he’s weak and I started with that game plan,” Will said. “But Mike and I are very different players and have very different styles and I wasn’t really very comfortable with it.”
Suffice it to say it didn’t work.
Will was down 1-4 and on the verge of dropping the first set when he decided his best course of action was to play his match his way.
And Quaker Valley repeated as WPIAL champions because of it.
Will reeled off five consecutive games to take the first set, 6-4, then edged Golla, 7-5, in the second for what tuned out to be the margin for victory for the Quakers in a 3-2 win over North Catholic.
Quaker Valley repeated for the first time since winning championships in 2002 and 2003.
“It means a lot, especially for the young guys to show them what this team is capable of,” Will said. “It shows that we’re the team to beat, we’re the best and I couldn’t have done it without these guys.”
Will was the only singles player to win for Quaker Valley as Mike lost at No. 1 to Nicolas Scheller, 6-0, 6-1, in a rematch of the last two WPIAL singles championship matches.
Quaker Valley’s top tandem of Henry Veeck and Justin Hajdukiewicz rolled to a 6-3, 6-0 win over Justin Kontul and Ken Canavan to put the Trojans into an early 1-0 hole. Michael Lipton and Chris Merkel took No. 2 doubles.