Monarchs oust Mount from tennis throne, 3-2

by TOM UTESCHER

Avenging a pair of regular-season losses to their Mount St. Joseph Academy counterparts, Gwynedd Mercy's Gabrielle Cappelli and Samantha Grosse prevailed in three sets at second doubles in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies championship match last Friday.

The final had been tied at 2-2, and the doubles victory put the Monarchs over the top, ending a four-year reign as champ by the Mount Magic.

The regular season champion with a 10-0 record, Mount St. Joe defeated Nazareth, 5-0, in the semifinal round of the playoffs, while in the other semi second-seeded Gwynedd (8-2 regular season) defeated St. Basil's to reach the championship match.

In each of their two previous meetings with Gwynedd, the Magic (13-3 overall) posted a 3-2 victory by taking the third singles match and both doubles bouts. For the most part, this pattern was repeated in the AACA final, which was played at Arcadia University.

A pair of Monarch juniors, number one Megan Smith and number two Karen Wolff, had both gone through the AACA season without a loss. In the finals, Smith took her first set against Mount sophomore Caroline Baca, 6-4. On- serve, Baca enjoyed a 2-1 edge early in the second set, but was then broken in the fifth game by Smith, who went on to another 6-4 win.

At second singles, Wolff posted a 6-3, 6-2 score over MSJ's Liz Pacheco, a junior, but Pacheco's classmate, Kathleen Hubbert, gave Mount St. Joe the "W" at third singles, defeating Gwynedd freshman Katie Smith, 6-4, 6-3. In an all-senior first doubles match, Sarah Brierley and Alyssa Hirst of the Magic won 6-4, 6-3 over Kelly Doyle and Morgan Bettinger, tying the team score at 2-2.

The title bout would come down to the second singles contest, where GMA's Cappelli and Grosse carried the first set, 6-4, and Mount seniors Maggie McDermott and Taylor Kenney won by the same score in the second stanza.

In the third set, the Magic duo almost secured a service break in the sixth game, but lost the last three points as the set score leveled out at 3-3. With Cappelli expertly placing her shots, Gwynedd came up with a key break in game nine. In the tenth, McDermott and Kenney fought off a double match point to get back to deuce, but GMA took the next point and then won the match when a Mount groundstroke failed to clear the net.