Hampton boys tennis surprises with deep playoff run

By: John Grupp
Saturday, May 17, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Hampton junior Zane List admits the Talbots boys tennis team held modest goals this season.

“Honestly,” he said, “we just wanted to make the playoffs.”

After graduating five of their top seven players from last year’s WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinalist, including PIAA singles qualifier Vitaliy Pikalo, the youthful Talbots were expected to have some growing pains this spring.

Instead, they went on the program’s deepest postseason run in 13 years.

“We definitely overachieved,” coach Grant McKinney said. “We set a goal of ‘Let’s see if we can be close to last year’s team.’ And we went further.”

The No. 6-seeded Talbots (10-6) saw their season end with a 3-2 loss to top-seeded South Park in the WPIAL Class 2A third-place match May 7, but not before a memorable spring full of big wins and valuable experience.

Hampton, with only one senior on its 11-boy roster, went 5-1 in Section 3-2A and finished behind eventual WPIAL Class 2A champion North Catholic. The Talbots opened the playoffs with a 3-1 storm-shortened win over No. 11 Montour. They followed with a 3-2 upset victory over No. 3 seed Blackhawk to reach the semifinals for the first time since 2012.

A pair of 3-2 losses — to No. 2 seed Valley in the semifinals and South Park in the third-place match with a PIAA berth on the line — didn’t diminish the team’s achievements.

“It was a great success,” said List, who played No. 1 doubles with his twin brother, A.J. “Going into the season, we had a lot of concerns about how our lineup would look with all of the seniors leaving. Everybody filled their roles and played it to perfection.”

Junior Jaxson Mayer took over at No. 1 singles, while sophomore Weston Gross and senior J.J. Edwards handled No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively.

The List brothers played No. 1 doubles, qualifying for the WPIAL championships, and sophomore Chase Essig and junior Sam Holmes manned No. 2 doubles.

A 3-2 victory over section foe Quaker Valley on March 25 boosted the Talbots’ confidence. The season also included nonsection wins over Shaler, Seneca Valley and Chartiers Valley.

“We had a ton of depth this year and a lot of unselfish teammates,” McKinney said. “My first singles player (Jaxson Mayer), all year long he knew he was up against some really hard kids. He was getting frustrated. I said, ‘Jaxson, you’re holding that spot. You are giving the rest of the team a chance to win.’ Someone’s got to go out and play first singles, but we have a lot of depth at singles, and we had a ton of depth at doubles.”

Hampton lacked some of the star power found in the other WPIAL semifinalists. North Catholic had five boys who qualified for WPIAL singles and/or WPIAL doubles. South Park had four. Valley had a top-four seed in both singles and doubles. Hampton, meanwhile, had no WPIAL singles qualifiers, and its lone doubles representative, the List twins, was seeded No. 8.

“It was remarkable how different we were from the other (semifinal) teams,” McKinney said. “That was striking.”

Edwards, the lone senior, was named the team MVP at the season-ending banquet May 12.

“I want to give a lot of praise to J.J.,” McKinney said. “He knew that the match was going to come down to him a lot of times. We knew we maybe didn’t stack up well at first and second singles, and that’s really hard to go out on the court and know, ‘I have to play my best and I have to be ready to pull it out for the team.’ That was a lot of pressure that he carried throughout the entire playoff run.”

While Edwards will graduate, everyone else returns. The Talbots are determined to finish in the top three in the WPIAL next season and reach the PIAA playoffs for the first time since qualifying from 2010-12.

“We were right on the doorstep of the state playoffs,” Zane List said. “I think that is the end goal for everyone on the team. It’s very motivating. Next year, the team will look very similar, and that gives me a lot of hope.”

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