Fox Chapel tennis tandem reflects on 3rd-place finish at WPIAL tournament

By: Josh Rizzo
Saturday, May 3, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Mason Friday and Frank Siegel protected their seed during the WPIAL Class 3A boys doubles tennis championships. The Fox Chapel duo nearly did more than that.

Friday and Siegel, who were seeded third, reached the semifinals before taking on Mt. Lebanon’s Luca Ritivoi and Mark Summers, who were seeded second. Friday and Siegel won the first set before falling 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

The Fox Chapel pair bounced back in the third-place match, rallying after losing the first set to beat Upper St. Clair’s Ari Plutko and Shawn Khurana, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Only two teams from the WPIAL moved on to the PIAA championships.

Siegel said he felt the semifinal match could have gone either way.

“After the first set, I knew it was going to be neck-and-neck, and the match could have gone either way,” Siegel said. “I’m proud of how Mason and I responded the next day by beating a tough Upper St. Clair team.”

Fox Chapel’s other doubles team in the tournament, seniors Henry Stallings and Charlie Larsen, were seeded ninth and upended the eighth-seeded Mt. Lebanon team of Evan McGill and Noah Klaber, 10-7, in the first round. Stallings and Larsen then lost to Plutko and Khurana, 10-7, in the next round.

For Friday and Siegel, they reached the semifinals with a 10-4 win over Peter Township’s Kritin Sharma and Tyler Urbanic and a 10-5 win over Franklin Regional’s Colin Stalnaker and Shanshiro Ogawa.

Friday said after the pair won the section doubles championship, they hadn’t played much doubles before. Both play singles at Fox Chapel and weren’t available to team up during the regular season.

However, during the postseason, the duo’s chemistry shone through. Friday served well, and Siegel played effectively at the net to win points.

Siegel, who was a freshman on a senior-laden team, said the players he routinely practiced with helped him be prepared for the postseason.

“I’m used to competing against older kids, so the fact that I’m a freshman didn’t faze me,” Siegel said. “I was pumped for WPIALs all season. I knew we’d have a good showing.”

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