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Hollidaysburg, Central duos claim tennis titles in Class 3A, 2A tournaments

d6 girls 2A & 3A doubles tennis championships

By John Hartsock 6 min read

Coming in as the favorite in any athletic competition brings with it an inherent type of pressure for a team or an individual.

It's a no-win, double-edged sword situation in which success is expected and falling short brings extreme disappointment.

The championship teams in Wednesday's District 6 tennis doubles championships in radiant, sun-splashed conditions at Mansion Park faced that set of circumstances as top seeds and defending district champions in their classifications, and both teams responded beautifully.

In the Class 3A title match, Hollidaysburg's team of juniors Crosby Denis and Grace Muriceak prevailed, 6-4, 6-0 over the State College tandem of Joanna Liu and Pervi Narayan, while in the Class 2A championship match, Central seniors Kate Dunn and Zoe Grill won a three-set thriller, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 over Tyrone's Nicole Ramsey and Ezri Bumgarner.

Both winning teams will advance to the state doubles tournament, which is set for Oct. 31-Nov. 2 at the Hershey Racquet Club.

Players on both winning teams overcame an early bout of apprehension to prevail and win the gold medal Wednesday.

The players on both winning teams have been playing doubles together for quite some time, and that familiarity and sense of comfort helped them to negotiate a challenging first set.

"Obviously, there is always pressure as the favorite, but we also came in with confidence today because we had been practicing and playing together for a while,'' Denis said of her tennis partnership with Muriceak. "We still knew that we had a pretty good shot at winning today.''

After being challenged by the State College team in the first set, Denis and Muriceak made some necessary adjustments to take control of the match in the second set.

"We had to adjust our game,'' Muriceak said. "The State College team played very well, and provided us with some very tough competition. We had to increase our energy as the match went on today.''

Hollidaysburg coach Brian Denis - Crosby's father - said that the circumstances surrounding the Lady Tigers team as the favorite made acclimation a challenge Wednesday.

"As the higher seed, you have everything to lose, and State College always has good doubles teams,'' Brian Denis said. "I think our players were a little bit nervous in the early going, but getting that first set really helped them, and they were able to close out the second set as quickly as possible.''

State College coach Jane Borden said that Muriceak and Crosby Denis have plenty of experience under their belts playing doubles tennis together. Borden said that her team of junior Liu and sophomore Narayan are playing doubles together for the first time this fall. Liu did qualify for the district doubles championship match with a different teammate last season.

"Hollidaysburg's doubles team obviously has great chemistry, and they played together very well today,'' Borden added. "We wish Hollidaysburg the best of luck at states.''

Muriceak and Crosby Denis - who qualified for the district singles title match last week but was forced to forfeit the match because of a finger/hand injury — made it to states with Muriceak as a doubles team last year, and they reached the quarterfinal round of the tournament before being eliminated. They are aiming to improve upon last year's performance this season.

It will actually be the third straight appearances in the doubles state tournament for Crosby Denis, who made it to Hershey with teammate Amanda Ferris two years ago.

"We went last year and made a pretty good run,'' Muriceak said of herself and Crosby Denis. "We lost in the quarterfinals last year. We're hoping to make it further this year.''

Central's Grill and Dunn were in the same boat as Crosby Denis and Muriceak as far as competition in the district doubles championship finals was concerned.

Grill and Dunn teamed to win last year's District 6 Class 2A girls doubles title, but faced a stiff challenge to defend their championship Wednesday from Tyrone senior Nicole Ramsey and junior Ezri Bumgarner, who beat the Central duo in the first set, 6-4.

Dunn and Grill, however, responded to win the next two sets by identical 6-2 scores to take their second consecutive district doubles title.

"I think that we were definitely tight in the first set, and they capitalized,'' said Dunn, who was a runner-up in last week's District 6 Class 2A singles tournament. "We came back after losing the first set, and we built our momentum.''

Grill said that it was a matter of Dunn and herself sticking to the strong points in their games that they execute best.

"We stuck to our shots,'' Grill said. "We just needed to relax a little bit.''

Central coach Shaun Coppersmith - who is sending a girls doubles team to states for the third straight season - lauded Dunn and Grill for staying the course in their championship match Wednesday.

"They had all the pressure on them, and they were definitely tight early in the match,'' Coppersmith said. "It took a while for them to get loose, and the Tyrone team played a very good match. But once our players relaxed, they took care of business pretty well.''

Grill and Dunn lost in the first round of the state doubles tournament last year.

"We're always looking to play our best, and we'll see how far that we can go down there this year,'' Dunn said.

The Tyrone team put up a spirited battle as the third seed, extending the defending champion Central squad to three sets.

"We never made it this far before,'' Ramsey said. "It's a great accomplishment. I'm happy with how we played.''

Bumgarner enjoyed the match.

"I thought that we played well,'' Bumgarner said. "There were a couple shots that I felt that I could have hit better, but overall, it was a really good match.''

Veteran Tyrone coach Randy Irvin agreed.

"Hats off to Central for coming back when they needed to, and our players battled the whole way,'' Irvin said. "It was a great three-set match.''

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