Kideckel sisters power LM past LC

Crusaders suffer first defeat of season

PHILADELPHIA » Firmly in control of their singles matches, the only suspense for Hannah and Rebecca Kideckel was which of the Lower Moreland freshmen would finish first.

“The last game was sort of a race,” Hannah Kideckel said.

Hannah secured her win a point faster than her twin sister, the two 6-0, 6-0 victories at first and second singles helping the Lions girls tennis team earn a 5-0 win over Lansdale Catholic in the PIAA Class 2A team tournament first round Tuesday at Legacy

Youth Tennis and Education on Tuesday morning.

“She finishes before me a lot of the time,” Rebecca Kideckel said.

Older sister Sarah Kideckel, a junior, claimed a 6-2, 6-1 win at third singles over Ella Moran while Lower Moreland’s doubles pairs — Madison Sopinsky and Erica Stone at first, Catherine Lemiasheuski and Anya Yang — dropped just one game as the District 1 champ Lions advanced to the state quarterfinals for the sixth time in the past seven seasons.

Lower Moreland faces either District 4 champ Central Columbia or District 3 third-place finisher Trinity 7 p.m. Friday at the Hershey Racquet Club in Hershey. Semifinals and final are set for Saturday back in Hershey.

“We don’t know what the other team is going to be like but we just want to go in there with a positive mindset,” Rebecca Kideckel said.

The loss was the first of the year for District 12 champ Lansdale Catholic (17-1) but the day’s result did little to diminish the team’s accomplishments for Crusaders coach Wendy Bradshaw.

‘I feel like this team is just an amazing team and we had an amazing record,” said Bradshaw, in her seventh season with LC. “We just happened to play a team that has three tournamentlevel players at their top and that’s

MIKE CABREY/MEDIANEWS GROUP Lower Moreland’s Rebecca Kideckel (left) and Hannah Kideckel both earned singles wins as the Lions defeated Lansdale Catholic in the PIAA-2A first round on Tuesday.