The tennis teams from Springside Chestnut Hill Academy and Germantown Academy were both missing players from their regular lineups when they met at SCH last Thursday. The resulting reshuffling of positions actually produced a dramatic Inter-Ac League match.

It finally ended a little before dusk when SCH senior Ella Brown defeated GA sophomore Zoe Brownstein in the first singles flight, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5. Many long rallies had extended the contest.

Brown, who normally plays second singles, was filling in for one of the missing Blue Devils, senior Leah Thomas. Away on college visits, Thomas has been the undefeated MVP in the Inter-Ac League both as a junior and senior. Earlier last week, she was the lone winner for SCH in a 1-6 loss to 2025 league champion Episcopal Academy.

That match took place last Tuesday, and with Thomas away the following day, the Blue Devils lost 1-6 to Agnes Irwin. A sweep was prevented by senior Alexa Edwards and sophomore Riley Zlotkin, who won at second doubles.

For the GA match on Thursday, Springside Chestnut Hill was missing not only Thomas, but also regular third-singles player Ariya Goswami, a senior who was out sick that day. Absences disrupted the doubles pairings for Germantown Academy; the Patriots were missing one player each from their normal first and second doubles duos.

Ella Brown’s normal spot at second singles was filled by her sophomore sister, Alyssa, and this contest ran almost as long as the first singles bout. GA’s Jessica Ma, also a 10th-grader, took the first set, 6-2; then Brown evened things up in the second, winning 6-4. A super tiebreaker was played instead of a full third set, and after the players went neck-and-neck up to 8-8, Ma won the next two points to capture the match.

Filling in at third singles for the Blue Devils was freshman Simone Weiss, and she succumbed to Patriots sophomore Erica Liang, 6-1, 6-2.

Springside Chestnut Hill’s decision to leave most of its doubles teams intact rather than push a few players up to singles worked out well in the end.

Both teams moved JV athletes up to play in the fourth doubles flight. Here, GA sophomores Anna Petersohn and Olivia Farma won, 6-1, 6-4, over SCH juniors Isabel Dupree and Scarlet DiDonato.

One flight up at number three, Blue Devils sophomore Lily Vakil and junior Leela Gilbert-Gokhale went by Germantown Academy seniors Rebecca Rong and Audrey Yu, 6-1, 6-0. Zlotkin and Edwards, who had secured the lone SCH win against Irwin a day earlier, posted a 6-1, 6-2 win against visitors Angie Li and Maddie Kalikhman. These two Patriots, both juniors, are used to playing together, but usually at third doubles, not second.

There was another 6-1, 6-2 outcome favoring Springside Chestnut Hill at first doubles. Seniors Finley Redpath and Scarlet Spector, who are regular partners, overcame the newly-assembled GA tandem of junior Lexi Tsirelson and senior Sedona Cohen.

With the team victory, the Blue Devils climbed to a record of 2-3 in the Inter-Ac and 7-3 overall, while the Patriots slipped to 1-3, 5-7.