Shady Side Academy making run at elusive title
Shady Side Academy has become the WPIAL Class 3A team tennis bridesmaid.
In seven of the past 10 years, the Bulldogs have been the runner-up finisher, twice to Peters Township (2011-12), four times to North Allegheny (2013-15, 2018) and, most recently, last season to Latrobe. They also have finished second in the PIAA finals three times, most recently in 2015.
It’s hard to believe that Shady Side Academy has gone more than a decade without winning a WPIAL Class 3A girls teams tennis title. The last time the Bulldogs took top honors was in 2010 with a 3-2 victory against Mt. Lebanon which they parlayed into their most recent state title as well.
But losing a hard-fought 4-1 match to the Wildcats in 2020, especially without the opportunity for redemption in the PIAA finals because of the COVID-19 restriction that only allowed district champion to move on, has been a motivating factor for Shady Side Academy throughout this season.
“I hope it has and hopefully they are motivated and working hard to challenge and get back to that point,” Shady Side Academy coach Jeff Miller said. “Last year, the top four were two freshmen and two sophomores and this year, they’re two sophomores and two juniors and, sometimes, I think we’re better than we are.”
With the regular season coming to an end, Shady Side Academy is now headed back to the postseason and has to be considered among the favorites to win it all this year in what might be one of the more wide-open team tournaments in a long time. The Bulldogs have all three of their starting singles players — sophomores Elana Sobol and Rachel Nath and junior Nichole Poltinnikov — back from last year, and all have ramped up their games throughout the season.
“I think they practiced a lot and certainly their ground strokes have improved,” Miller said. “I just think they have to deal with all the noise and all the other things that are going on around them, like dealing with schoolwork and social lives and they’ll be fine.”
Shady Side Academy is only one of several teams that have a shot at winning it all this year.
Latrobe is the defending champion and, with new coach Karissa Skiba, the team has the potential to repeat. The Wildcats have a formidable pair at the top of the lineup in seniors Jenna Bell and Carolina Walters who combined to win the Section 1 doubles title and also have another pair of seniors on the roster in Maya Jain and Emily Pierce.
Peters Township, which won the title in 2019 and was the top seed in 2020 until it was upset by Latrobe, always has to be considered a threat, especially with WPIAL singles runner-up Kat Wang at the top of the lineup. But the team’s depth was impacted when junior Marra Bruce opted not to play.
Upper St. Clair has a solid lineup led by No. 1 singles player junior Maggie Steif, who qualified for the state finals this season. The Panthers are also one of the few teams to knock off North Allegheny, which surged late in the year after losing to Upper St. Clair and Peters Township.
Class 2A
Since the beginning of the season it was apparent that defending WPIAL and PIAA champion Knoch was heading for a fifth consecutive showdown in the team tournament.
Sewickley Academy won the first three WPIAL titles — and knocked off the Knights in the 2019 PIAA finals for good measure — before Knoch rebounded with a dramatic 3-2 victory at Shady Side Academy last year on its way to the first state championship in school history.
And there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen again.
Both Knoch and Sewickley Academy have top-end singles players in sophomore Ashley Close and junior Ally Bauer and the two have already met once this season. That time, Close became the first Panthers singles player in eight years to win the Class 2A title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory at North Allegheny.
Knoch also has a pair of solid singles players at No. 2 and No. 3 in Emily Greb, who lost to Bauer in the WPIAL singles semifinals, along with her twin sister Lindsey.