Bethel Park, Pa. – The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) held its second of three championships of the 2024 season on Wednesday and Thursday at the WPIAL/UPMC Sports Medicine Girls’ Tennis Doubles Championships. All of Thursday’s matches were held at Bethel Park High School, while Wednesday’s opening rounds were split between Bethel Park and North Allegheny High School. In Class 3A, Mt. Lebanon junior duo Jackie Tang and Michelle Yang brought home their school’s second doubles titles in three seasons, while Quaker Valley senior Kirsten Close and freshman Avery Allan won Class 2A gold.
 
Tang and Yang join 2022 winners Sophia Cunningham and Sylvie Eriksen as Mt. Lebanon’s WPIAL doubles champions over the last three years. The Blue Devils extended their number of WPIAL doubles championships to a league-high 14 – seven more than second-place Fox Chapel – with their previous titles coming in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, and 2022.
 
Close and Allan are Quaker Valley’s first WPIAL doubles champions since 2015 and its third overall – pulling the Quakers into a tie for eighth all-time with Bishop Canevin, Greater Latrobe, Greensburg Central Catholic, Sewickley Academy, and Upper St. Clair. Close is now a two-time WPIAL doubles medalist, previously claiming silver as a freshman in 2021.
 
The top three finishers in both Class 2A and Class 3A have qualified for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Girls’ Tennis Doubles Championships, which will be held on Nov. 1-2 at Hershey Racquet Club.
 
CLASS 3A RECAP
Mt. Lebanon juniors Jackie Tang and Michelle Yang captured its school’s second Class 3A doubles championship in three seasons, defeating Shady Side Academy freshmen Brooke Henderson and Alexandra Merkel in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0. Tang and Yang, the top seed, began bracket play on Wednesday with 10-3 victories over Greater Latrobe juniors Brooke Coll and Maria Fetter and North Hills juniors Elinor Kim and Adelaide Seigworth. The duo then topped Pine-Richland freshmen Cassandra Lapina and Sonaya Arora in the semifinals, 7-5, 6-2, to reach the championship match.
 
Henderson and Merkel entered as the two seed and opened the tournament with a 10-0 win over Moon senior Kiera Wise and junior Evelyn Wise. The pair then defeated North Allegheny freshman Mia Kaufman and sophomore Audrey Zheng in the quarterfinals (10-7) and Chartiers Valley senior Kaitlyn Kuczinski and freshman Carly Weber in the semifinals (6-4, 6-3) to secure a PIAA qualifier spot.
 
In the third-place consolation match, fourth-seeded Lapina and Arora defeated 14th-seeded Kuczinski and Weber, 6-2, 6-2.
 
Tang is the only medalist to previously have competed in the WPIAL Girls’ Tennis Doubles Championships, finishing 1-1 last season with Ellie Tatel. Kuczinski was a bronze medalist with Delaney Fox in Class 2A two seasons ago.

CLASS 2A RECAP
Quaker Valley senior Kirsten Close and freshman Avery Allan dropped a total of seven games throughout the Class 2A tournament, and captured the gold with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over North Catholic sophomore Brea Kelley and senior Katie Hardy. Close and Allan, the top seed, received a bye to begin the championships, then topped North Catholic sophomore Samantha Falcon and freshman Evelyn Marche (10-3) and Oakland Catholic sophomore Mollie Sclichter and junior Luciana Easly (6-0, 6-0) to make the final.
 
Kelley and Hardy, the two seed, lost just one game en route to the championship match. The duo defeated Valley senior Alexandra Thomey and sophomore Karrigan Thomey and Aquinas Academy freshman Alexandra Swift and sophomore Katherine Gillespie by identical 10-0 scores, then topped Greensburg Central Catholic senior Sasha Hoffman and sophomore Emilia Longhi by a 6-1, 6-0 scoreline.
 
Fourth-seeded Sclichter and Easly bested third-seeded Hoffman and Longhi in the third-place consolation match, 7-6(3), 6-2.
 
Close entered the WPIAL Girls’ Tennis Singles Championships at the 2021 silver medalist, while the duo of Kelley and Hardy as well as Sclichter in Class 3A won bronze last season. Kelley and Hardy were silver medalists at last year’s PIAA Girls’ Tennis Doubles Championships, and Close and Sclichter will be making their second PIAA appearances.
 
PIAA PREVIEW
Dates & Location: Nov. 1-2 at Hershey Racquet Club
Amount of Champions from WPIAL: 37 (34 in Class 3A, 3 in Class 2A)
Class 3A Qualifiers: Jackie Tang (11)/Michelle Yang (11), Mt. Lebanon; Brooke Henderson (9)/Alexandra Merkel (9), Shady Side Academy; Cassandra Lapina (9)/Sonaya Arora (9), Pine-Richland
          - Appearances: Tang – 1st; Yang – 1st; Henderson – 1st; Merkel – 1st; Lapina – 1st; Arora – 1st
Class 2A Qualifiers: Kirsten Close (12)/Avery Allan (9), Quaker Valley; Brea Kelley (10)/Katie Hardy (12), North Catholic; Mollie Sclichter (10)/Luciana Easly (11), Oakland Catholic
          - Appearances: Close – 2nd (1-1 in 2021 w/ Roshni Thakkar); Kelley – 2nd (2nd in 2023 w/ Katie Hardy);
                                      Hardy – 2nd (2nd in 2023 w/ Brea Kelley); Sclichter – 2nd (0-1 in 2023 w/ Abby Santora);
                                      Allan – 1st; Easly – 1st
Last Class 3A PIAA Champions from WPIAL: Kat Wang/Marra Bruce, Peters Township (2020)
Last Class 2A PIAA Champions from WPIAL: Emily Greb/Lindsey Greb, Knoch (2021)

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