Pair of singles players, doubles team from WPIAL remain in PIAA tennis title hunt

By: Tribune-Review
Friday, May 26, 2023 | 9:38 PM

Two singles players and a doubles team from the WPIAL remain in contention for a championship after the first day of the PIAA boys tennis championships in Hershey.

Winchester Thurston freshman Austin He, Sewickley Academy sophomore Severin Harmon and the Gateway doubles team of Adam Memije and Zidaan Hassan advanced to Saturday’s state semifinals.

In Class 2A singles, He, the WPIAL champ, rolled through a pair of matches in straight sets. In the quarterfinals, he beat District 12 champ Ajay Sheth of Masterman, 6-4, 6-3. Harmon, the WPIAL runner-up, won a three-set battle with District 4 champ Eddie Monaco of Lewisburg, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, in the quarterfinals.

Aquinas Academy junior Jackson Gillespie lost in the first round.

In Class 2A doubles, runners-up Josh Havrilla and August Lawrence of Latrobe were the only WPIAL team to make it out of the first round. Havrilla and Lawrence beat District 5 champs Tristen Ruffley and Hunter Beard of Bedford, 6-4, 6-1, before falling in the quarterfinals.

Chartiers Valley’s Liam Pederson and Brendan Hallisey, Valley’s Nicholas Bussard and Landon Harclerode and the South Park freshman duo of Jonah Jasek and Steven Duing lost in the first round.

In Class 3A doubles, Memije and Hassan, the WPIAL champs, picked up a pair of straight-sets victories to reach the semifinals. They dispatched District 1 runners-up Jack Barrickman and Ryan Megil of Unionville, 6-4, 6-4, in the quarters.

Allderdice’s Deniz Finkel and Ian Kuchera, meanwhile, beat Basil Lubiniecki and Francis Quin of Conestoga in the first round before bowing out in the quarterfinals.

Both WPIAL entries, champion Anthony Lounder of Moon and runner-up Devin Collier of Bethel Park, lost in the first round in Class 3A singles.