Quaker Valley tennis wants to snap title drought, while Sewickley Academy adjusts to Class AAA

By: Karen Kadilak
Friday, April 5, 2019 | 5:14 PM

After dominating WPIAL Class AA for years, the Sewickley Academy boys tennis team (4-1, 4-0 in Section 2-AAA) is playing up in Class AAA.

If that is not daunting enough, the Panthers are rebuilding.

They saw four players depart from a squad that earned its 14th consecutive WPIAL Class AA title and placed second in the PIAA last season. Among the losses were WPIAL and PIAA doubles champions Will Nocito and Dylan Parda.

“We’ll give it our best shot,” Sewickley Academy coach Whitney Snyder said.

Junior Arjan Bedi, the reigning WPIAL Class AA singles champion, returns.

Junior Saarang Mulukutla moves to second singles after coming in second with Cole Luther in the WPIAL doubles tournament. Luther has gone, as has Nishant Purewal, who placed third in the WPIAL in singles.

Junior Alex Billiar plays third singles.

Junior Will Stevenson climbs to first doubles. Other players are senior Jayvir Monga, sophomore Cole Rychel, junior Jeremy Gu and sophomore Navin Rana.

“We are gonna have some slip-ups, considering a lot of our players are new to varsity,” Mulukutla said. “That makes us look weaker, but I think we’re gonna prove some people wrong.

“We have awesome talent all across the board.”

Bedi said the Panthers are hungry.

“The goal remains that we all play the best tennis we are capable of,” he said.

The Quaker Valley boys team (6-1, 4-0 in Section 2-AA) expects to be in the mix for its first WPIAL Class AA title since 2003. The Quakers are the last team other than Sewickley Academy to earn the crown.

They placed fourth last season after losing in the consolation match.

“(We) are very excited about our prospects,” Quaker Valley coach Christi Hays said. “We were one match shy last year of getting back to states after qualifying in both 2016 and 2017.

“We were already motivated to qualify this year. We have added depth with the addition of several quality players.”

Freshman Mike Sirianni, senior Andres Hubsch and freshman Ryan Edwards play singles for the Quakers.

Juniors John Watters and Zach Albert, the defending section champions, form the first doubles team. Competing in second doubles are freshman Will Sirianni and senior Potter Oliver.

Sophomores Jack Bresch, Matt Kubinski, Thomas Pangburn and Bodhi Wilson and seniors Trent Kozar and Ryan Jackovic are other players.

“I hope we can smoke our section and win WPIALs,” Watters said.

Hubsch said his goals are to make it to the PIAA playoffs in Hershey and win the WPIAL title.

Tags: Quaker Valley, Sewickley Academy