Mount tennis regrouping after talented class graduates

Posted 8/19/19

Seniors Danielle Hughes (left) and Emma Brogan are the Mount's tennis team captains this season. (Photo by Tom Utescher) by Tom Utescher The Mount St. Joseph Academy tennis team is the four-time …

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Mount tennis regrouping after talented class graduates

Posted

Seniors Danielle Hughes (left) and Emma Brogan are the Mount's tennis team captains this season. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

The Mount St. Joseph Academy tennis team is the four-time defending champion in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies, and it's no coincidence that during that impressive run, the Magic had a pair of talented players who spent four years dominating the singles flights.

Those racquetwomen, Stow Weiss and Elizabeth Christine, have now graduated, and along with them went a first doubles player for several seasons, Liz Meister.

The Magic will definitely have a different look this fall, and it starts with current junior Grace Walker moving up from third singles to the top spot this year. Classmate Rachel Zilligan, who in the past was part of the Magic's potent first doubles combo along with Meister, is now going solo at second singles. A new arrival at the Mount, freshman Dylan Conroy has earned the third singles position in preseason challenge matches.

The two seniors on the roster, Emma Brogan and Danielle Hughes, are the team captains for 2019.

In the Mount's league, official matches still consist of three singles and two doubles flights. Outside of their AACA contests, the Magic will follow the standard Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association format of three singles and four doubles matches.

The partnerships in pairs play were still being determined at the end of last week, but head coach Joy Grafenstine had identified five players who are definitely in the mix for doubles. They are juniors Kennedy Kropper and Nancy Mabry, sophomores Ellie Devine and Leah Scott and freshman Beth Murray.

Last season, Mabry and Scott played together at third doubles in non-league matches.

Grafenstine is back for her fifth season at the helm of the Mount program, and coming on board as an assistant this year is experienced club player Kate Murray, who played collegiate soccer at Notre Dame.

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