SCH tennis edged by Penn Charter in familiar fashion

by Tom Utescher
Posted 10/20/22

The Springside Chestnut Hill Academy tennis team met Penn Charter last Tuesday for the second time this season, hoping to flip the outcome of at least one match to avoid another loss.

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SCH tennis edged by Penn Charter in familiar fashion

Posted

The Springside Chestnut Hill Academy tennis team met Penn Charter last Tuesday for the second time this season, hoping to flip the outcome of at least one match to avoid another loss to the Quakers.

PC defeated the Blue Devils, 4-3, back on September 16, and in the return match at SCH last week history repeated itself, with PC once again winning the second singles flight and the first, second, and third doubles contests.

Josh Victor is in his first season as Penn Charter's head coach. Coming from the coaching staff of the Legacy Tennis Center at the foot of School House Lane, he has worked with young players from a number of area school programs.

His team's second 4-3 victory over Springside Chestnut Hill gave the Quakers a league record of 4-3 and an overall mark of 5-3. SCH came away 2-5, 6-5.

The host Blue Devils did very well in the early going, winning each of the first three matches to finish. Senior Liz Shoff and sophomore Leah Laudenbach started it off by winning at fourth doubles, 7-5, 6-0 over PC freshman Eva Kothari and sophomore Olivia Calvanese.

Senior Emma Bradbury defeated visiting sophomore Karya Karabucak in third singles, 6-4, 6-1, and Blue Devils freshman Leah Thomas continued to perform impressively at first singles, winning 6-1, 6-4 over PC senior Lexi Bari.

Springside needed to win just one of the other four matches to clinch a team victory, but that wasn't to be.

Penn Charter secured the remaining singles match, with number two Mariah Mays, a sophomore, topping freshman Ella Brown in a pair of 6-3 sets.

Two 6-2 sets added up to victory for PC at third doubles, where senior Grace Jordan-Weinstein and freshman Jordan Simon overcame the SCH tandem of sophomore Farah Horgan and senior Annie Gu.

A Charter win at first doubles would even up the team score at 3-3. The two Blue Devils, senior Winslow Tracy and freshman Ariya Goswami, wrapped up the first set at 6-1, then Quakers sophomores Leila Feldman and Bridgette Gold rallied to win the second frame, 6-4.

In a super tiebreaker played instead of a full third set, the SCH duo led 8-6 at one stage, but the PC pair rebounded to take four straight points, winning 10-8 to capture the match.

The two sets at second singles were each extended until both concluded with scores of 7-5 in favor of Charter juniors Frances Guenther and Savannah Abernathy. They overcame two SCH seniors, Sofia Foote and Zuri Aluqdah.