Tigers return dominant singles players

Michelle Weniger has a problem.

On one hand, the North Allegheny coach has sophomore sensation Ava Catanzarite, the No. 1 singles player for the Tigers last season who is the top-ranked player in the state in her class, is currently among the top-20 sophomores in the country and was the 2017 WPIAL Class 3A runnerup. On the other is senior Ashley Huang, the No. 2 senior in the state, last year’s No. 2 playerfor the school and is the reigning PIAA Class 3A singleschampion.

Her quandary is which one she should pick as the No. 1 singles player this year and whogets slotted in at No. 2.

“I ran into Ava and Ashley working out at the high school and they were on their way to a tournament in San Diego and we talked about camp and looking forward to it and I’m looking forward to them being there,” Weniger said. “But it’s going to be Ava at No. 1 and, when you think about it, it’s going to be complicated, it’s going to be ticklish and I’m not sure how they’ll both handle it.”

It’s a tricky proposition and a complication that most coachesonly dream about.

“I hear that from coaches all the time that they would like to have just one of the girls and we have three, especially when the Li sisters (Anna and Tina) were around and I understand,” Weniger said. “I’m very fortunate to be coaching at North Allegheny because it seems like every year someone is coming up through the system and they’re very good.”

Having perhaps the best player in the state as a sophomore who hasn’t won a title in high school playing in front of a defending state champion is unheard of and yet that’s exactly what the case will be when the Tigers take the court for their first matchnext week.

“I talked to Ashley and she told me that she played No. 3 singles for so many years and was just glad to be a part of a team and played high school tennis, but there’s two sides to Ashley,” Weniger said. “One is that she’s highly competitive and driven and the other is that she wants to be a part of a team and really enjoys that and is not comfortable with controversy even though it falls on her and she’sa complex kid.”

It also helps that Catanzarite and Huang are close friends who train and travel together to out-of-state USTA tournaments. But having two players of that caliber could make the five-time defending WPIAL team champion and reigning state champions complacent, which is a concern as the season moves forward.

“Allof these girls have been to the postseason a couple of times, they know the teams they’re going to face and they know their strengths and weaknesses and everything they had to work on in the offseason,” Weniger said. “Right after our championship match last year against Harriton, knowing every one of their girls was returning, that instinct was in them that they were already thinking about nextyear.”

Class 2A

Sewickley Academy is no stranger to winning WPIAL Class 2A team championships.

In fact, the Panthers have taken two of the last four crowns and won the state title in2011.

Last year, however, might have been one of the least expected championships for the school. Sewickley Academy didn’t have a freshman or two dotting its lineup but had firstyear players in all three singles slots and was still able to roll nearly unscathed through the WPIAL tournament, losing its only individual match in a 4-1 victory over Knoch in thefinals.

Now, all of those freshmen are a year older, which could mean trouble for the rest of the classification.

“I have seven players coming back and two or three others who are going to make the team,” Sewickley Academy coachWhitney Snyder said. “I think a lot of those girls are individual tournament players with their own private coaches, so they had been used to playing USTA tournaments and had not been on a team in a team environment and I think it was a good bonding experience.”

With all those players back, Sewickley Academy is setting itssights high this season. The Panthers were knocked off in the state semifinals, 3-1, to Lower Moreland with only No.1 singles player Evelyn Safar, the No. 10 sophomore in thestate, winning her match

“They were really upset after losing in the state tournament last year,” Snyder said. “Hopefullythat carries over.”