GIRLS TENNIS
At Birchwood Tennis & Fitness Center, a group of the state’s best female tennis players will compete for gold in the District 2 Singles Tournament Championships.
Class 3A and Class 2A semifinals are scheduled for Monday at 1 p.m. The top-seeded players from the previous tournaments in both classes are back.
Susan Arp, a senior from Abington Heights, has won twice already. In the semifinals, she takes on Sarah Niemiec of Wallenpaupack and Hannah Ziegler of Crestwood, who finished second to Arp last year. Sona Hanumali of Abington Heights is her opponent.
In Class 2A, fourth-seeded Alyssa Wigley takes on defending two-time District 2 and PIAA champion Ilana Rosenthal of Wyoming Seminary, while Scranton Prep’s Lily Lengyel goes up against No. 2 Cara Evans of Montrose in the quarterfinals.
Arp is 16-2 this season and has a 68-8 lifetime record. As a four-year varsity player, she guided the Lady Comets to four District 2 Class 3A team victories.
Arp won both of the matches on Friday, defeating Jessica Willson of Delaware Valley and Ella Swingle of Valley View, 6-0, 6-0. Niemiec led Wallenpaupack to the District 2 Class 3A team championships while playing at No.
1 singles. She won 6-1, 6-0 against Gabby Gorzkowski of Hazleton Area and 6-0, 7-5 against Zarina Mustafina of West Scranton.
This season, Arp played Niemiec twice. She won 6-0, 6-3 in the District 2 Class 3A team event final after winning in the regular season.GIRLS TENNIS
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Last season, Ziegler lost in three sets against Arp in the district final. She defeated Wallenpaupack’s Alaina Birke, 6-2, 6-1, and Hazleton Area’s Mia Hormonosky, 6-4, 6-1, to earn the No. 2 seed.
Despite battling a shoulder ailment early in the season and being the sixth seed going into the tournament, Hanumali has played flawlessly in the postseason. In a match featuring two All-Region players, she won 6-0, 6-0 against Julie Farkaly of West Scranton and 6-2, 7-5 against Noelle Holderith of Delaware Valley. Her career record is 58-7.
One could argue that the four Class 2A tournament semifinalists should each receive a bid to the PIAA tournament. But only the victor is eligible.GIRLS TENNIS
According to tennisrecruiting.net, Rosenthal is ranked No. 2 in the state for her graduating class and No. 22 in the Middle Atlantic States. As a freshman, she advanced to the District 2 Class 2A final and went on to win the championship in 2022 and 2023. Evans last season and Wigley in 2022 were both vanquished by her.
Rosenthal is 17-1 and has lost 18 games in four District 2 singles championships, including 12 to Riverside’s Karissa Ghigiarelli in 2021.GIRLS TENNIS
Wigley had a distinguished career at Scranton Prep as well. She has won the Times-Tribune Player of the Year award twice. In the previous season, she helped the Classics win the PIAA team tournament by going 4-0 at No. 1 singles.
She qualified for the semifinals four times this season, starting at No. 2 singles. Her career record is 83-4, and according to tennisrecruiting.net, she is ranked No. 15 in the state and No. 92 in the Middle Atlantic States for the Class of 2025.
This season, Evans and Lengyel will face off twice. Evans prevailed in the first match, 6-3, 6-0.
Evans advanced to the District 2 Class 2A final last season, where he was defeated by Rosenthal, 6-0, 6-0. When the two faced off in the District 2 Class 2A team competition, Evans was ahead 5-3 in the opening set when Wyoming Seminary secured the victory, forcing the match to end.
Evans, a sophomore, is ranked No. 41 in the Middle Atlantic States and No. 6 in the state. She has a 36-2 career record after two seasons, and she is 19-0 this season.GIRLS TENNIS
This season, Lengyel, a sophomore who is ranked No. 11 in the state, advanced to play at No. 1 singles for Scranton Prep. Her career record is 53-5. During the team competition, her match against Rosenthal was stopped, and she fell behind, 6-0, 5-3.
