High School Girls tennis

Eardley, Stiffler help Lady Tigers bring home team tennis gold

District 6 Class 3A team tennis championships

STATE COLLEGE -- Hollidaysburg entered the 2026 high school girls tennis season as the clear favorite to win the District 6 Class 3A team championship after returning most of its team that won a third-straight title last fall.

But things didn't go as smoothly as expected.

One of the team's star seniors, Emma Moritz, began the season in a walking boot, and the Lady Tigers played in a couple unexpectedly close matches.

As Moritz returned to health, everything seemed to come back together. Hollidaysburg hit its stride and never looked back and capped it off with its fourth straight District 6 Class 3A championship, 3-0, over top-seeded State College on Wednesday.

"It's a dream. I don't even have any words to describe it," Moritz said. "It's been six years between the junior high team and the varsity. Then there were two years in summer camp in fifth grade before that. All of that led up to this, and you can't ask for anything more."

The Lady Tigers were also leading the two matches that were halted when Rina Stiffler and Taylor Eardley's win at No. 1 doubles clinched the championship.

"I'm happy for the seniors," Hollidaysburg coach Brian Denis said. "Especially Taylor. You talk about getting lost in the spotlight, Taylor came up huge for us today. She was by far the best doubles player out of those eight girls. She won it for us. Doubles have come up big for us three years in a row."

Eardley, along with fellow starting seniors Grace Muriceak, Crosby Denis, Moritz and Olivia Panaro lived up to the pressure on the team, which entered the season with its entire starting lineup back.

"At the beginning of the season with Emma being hurt, we played Central Cambria and didn't look real sharp," Coach Denis said. "I wondered if we had senioritis setting in, but we very slowly picked things. The turning point was we had a week where we played Altoona and played really well and then we beat Abington Heights under the lights, and I knew we had turned a corner."

Moritz said she appreciated the help she got while recovering.

"There was an adjustment period," Moritz said. "I had a lot of people around me supporting me. My coaches and family -- it took a lot of perseverance. I knew where I wanted to be. I knew this was the goal. It just took a lot of time and a lot of effort."

Along with Crosby Denis, Moritz captured the District 6 Class 3A doubles championship, and she was the first to win her match, 6-2, 6-1, at No. 3 singles on Wednesday.

"I'm super happy for her," Denis said. "Like I said after doubles, she kind of gets lost in the shuffle. We have two outstanding players in Grace and Crosby, but she's an outstanding player as well. She got an opportunity in the district doubles and really held her own with Crosby, and I am super happy for her to win that. Then she came out today and was the first one done. She's a senior that plays super smart, very strategic tennis. We didn't need to coach her much today, because she had a plan and executed it perfectly."

Moritz has been a starter on the last three championship teams. Muriceak and Crosby Denis have been on all four.

"It's pretty amazing," Muriceak said. "We're just so blessed. God gave us the talent to come out here and gave us the strength to complete all these matches. We really earned this. We worked so hard."

Muriceak, who defeated Denis for the District 6 Class 3A individual championship, led Joanna Liu -- who she defeated in the District 6 individual semifinals -- 7-5, 4-3 after falling behind 4-1 in the first set and rallying.

When Eardley and Stiffler clinched the championship, Muriceak didn't even notice at first, because she was so locked in against Liu.

"It was a relief. I had to stay locked in. I couldn't focus on any other matches," Muriceak said. "I had all my focus on my match. This might have been the greatest season we have ever had in my four years of playing on the team."

Hollidaysburg has now won 13 out of the last 17 team championships, but this was the first Coach Denis was able to lead his team from the court with the new coaching-on-the-fly rules passed by the PIAA last summer.

"I love being out there and coaching for two hours," Coach Denis said. "You get such a good pulse of the match and the score. You can communicate with them, and my kids are such great communicators. To be able to talk to them every single point is such a God-send. When they need you, you can tell. It was cool to have a front-row spot to see their reaction to clinching a district championship."

In addition to Eardley and Stiffler's win and Moritz's victory, Crosby Denis defeated Abigail Cao, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 2 singles.

Despite already being established as a championship-level team, Coach Denis felt all of this players put in extra work to get even better as upperclassmen.

"It's so much harder when you get to 11th and 12th grade," Denis said. "I honestly feel like you have to put in five times the amount of time just to get a little bit better. You work on things like footwork, fitness and other things, and these girls did that."

SINGLES: 1, Muriceak, H, led Liu, 7-5, 4-3; 2, Denis, H, def. Cao, 6-3, 6-3; 3, Moritz, H, def. Ilieva, 6-2, 6-1.

DOUBLES: 1, Eardley-Stiffler, H, def. Terrones-Lee, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3); 2, Panaro-Klingner, H, led Ma-Labosky, 6-2, 3-6, 3-1.

Records: Hollidaysburg (17-0); State College (12-1).