Wyomissing handles York Suburban
HERSHEY >> The York Suburban boys’ tennis team knew what it was up against even before they jumped in the school van for the midday trip to the Hershey Racquet Club on Wednesday.
The fourth-seeded Trojans had won their opening round District 3 Class AA team tennis championship match against East Pennsboro on Friday. That earned York Suburban the right to face top-seeded Wyomissing in the semifinal round of the eight-team playoff.
Wyomissing has won 11 consecutive Berks championships, seven straight District 3 crowns and five of the past seven PIAA state team titles, including three straight.
The match took less than an hour as Wyomissing used straight-set wins in both doubles matches and at No. 2 singles to score a 3-0 win over the Trojans.
“Unlike a lot of high school teams, most teams will have a drop off somewhere,” York Suburban coach Mark O’Reilly said. “Wyomissing does not. One through seven. They are just really, really strong.”
Wyomissing (12-0) will meet Lancaster Country Day at 12:45 p.m. today at the Hershey Racquet Club for the District 3 Class AA championship. Lancaster Country Day beat ELCO, 3-1, in the other semifinal on Wednesday.
“We are on a pretty good run,” Wyomissing coach Mike Gyomber said. “We have a pretty good group of kids, but you never know how the matches are going to go until they are played. At this point, we are just going to work as hard as we can and hope everything works out.”
York Suburban (13-3) meets ELCO at 11:30 a.m. today at Hershey Racquet Club to determine the third-place finisher and final District 3 entrant in the PIAA Class AA tourney.
“We have a shot,” said York Suburban No. 1 player Elliot Diehl. “It is in our hands. It is in our grasp.”
The Wyomissing No. 1 doubles team of seniors Pat White and Zach Miller dispatched York Suburban’s team of sophomores Dan Lee and Tyr Abendschoen, 6-1, 6-1. Wyomissing sophomore Ben Croft and junior Izaak Weaver-Herrera claimed the No. 2 doubles match with a 6-0, 6-0 win against senior Cooper Lando and junior Jacob Arbetman of York Suburban.
“Their doubles players are really well-coached,” O’Reilly said. “They know what they are doing. They don’t have any weaknesses in their lineup.”
Wyomissing scored its winning point at No. 2 singles as junior Dan Trifoi defeated York Suburban senior Michael Peck, 6-0, 6-0.
Peck, a YAIAA Class AA singles finalist and district quarterfinalist this spring, was up against the Berks Class AA singles runner-up to teammate Andre Fick. Trifoi also advanced to the second round of the District 3 Class AA singles tourney this past weekend.
“There is nobody like that in York County I have seen,” said Peck of Trifoi. “It’s kind of a rude awakening, I guess. We knew what we were going up against. We were hoping to get a few games out of it and be better off for it. Districts in general has been a learning experience for me. It’s a totally different game at this level.”
YAIAA Class AA two-time singles champ Diehl met Fick in the No. 1 singles match. As a junior, Fick won both the District 3 and PIAA singles crowns in Class AA. He captured his second straight district crown this past weekend.
“I was just going in to see if I could have some fun,” said Diehl, who plans on continuing his tennis career and study business at NCAA Division III Goucher College in Baltimore. “I was hoping to at least win a game or two.”
Fick won the opening set, 6-0, and was ahead 3-0 in the second set when the team match was decided.
“He’s really good,” Diehl said. “He’s on a different level. You have to react so quick. The balls come back so much faster. He’s so quick to the ball and moves his feet well. I hit a few good drop shots, and he got up to them. I even said to him, ‘An average kid wouldn’t get to that,’ and he laughed.”
Wyomissing junior Alphonse Bongbong won his opening set with York Suburban senior Ben Strine, 6-0, and was leading 4-0 in the second set when their No. 3 singles match was halted.
“Just making it to districts is a treat, honestly,” Diehl said. “It was a goal at the beginning and to accomplish that was great. Winning (the first-round district match) was a lot of fun and got us pumped up. We also got to play (Wyomissing), which was a great experience.”
