Liang, Nouaime help Methacton open season with win over North Penn

TOWAMENCIN >> For Methacton girls tennis’ Alice Liang and Hana Nouaime, the pair’s successful doubles partnership helps bolster the effort of both during singles competition.

“We like to say we get tired of each other because we spend so much time together,” Ling said. “But when I’m playing badly I’m like ‘Hana, I’m just playing so badly’ on the singles court and I tell her and then we cheer each other on.”

Liang, a senior, and Nouaime, a junior, have won the past two District 1-3A doubles titles and last season claimed the PIAA-3A doubles championship after falling in the state final in 2020. But Tuesday afternoon, the duo were the top two singles players as the Warriors visited North Penn in the season opener for both teams.

Nouaime and Liang each had little trouble securing straight-sets victories as Methacton picked up a 7-0 win over the Knights in the nonleague match.

“Sometimes in USTA matches, tennis feels like more of a singles sport and then doubles is something on the side and it’s just something you do,” Nouaime said. “But for high school, tennis doesn’t really feel that way. So we’re happy to experience both.”

Nouaime, playing at first singles, dropped two games in the first set to North Penn senior Dakota Williams but settled in and picked up a 6-2, 6-0 victory.

“I think the surroundings were pretty difficult,” Nouaime said. “Just it’s a super windy day and, I don’t know, the court, it bounces weirdly so I wasn’t used to it but I got used to it later in the first set.”

Liang earned a 6-1, 6-0 win over Sanjana Jacob at second singles while at third singles the Warriors’ Lauren Montgomery topped Krita Ranjith 6-1, 6-1.

“Today I wasn’t playing that well,” Liang said. “But I pulled through and did what I was supposed to do.”

North Penn, which lost three players from last season’s squad – including PIAA-3A singles champ Esha Velaga – made the Warriors work harder in the doubles portion, including taking a set at third doubles, but could not prevent the visitors from collecting a sweep of the day’s seven matches.

“This is a tough team,” said Knights coach Renee DiDomizio of Methacton. “With the singles spots they’ve got three tournament players so they’re a little out of our league on that singles end so we really couldn’t compete with that. Doubles we had our chances but we couldn’t finish off some of those.

“We lost the first set, did well in the second but wasn’t enough to get the match so they kind of got more confidence in themselves the second sets but it was too late, we couldn’t pull it together.”

At first doubles, Methacton’s Anika Suresh and Morgan Coupe claimed a 6-2, 6-4 win over NP’s Cassandra Alling and Maddie Juckniewitz while the Warriors’ No. 2 pair of Dru O’Brien and Carlee Delosse bested Ashley Yu and Madeline Adarayan 6-2, 6-3.

Julia Miccoli and Shannon O’Leary rebounded from dropping the first set at third doubles to defeat the Knights’ Molly Agriss and Saanvi Patel 3-6, 6-3 6-2. Methacton’s Olivia Schneier and Sol Martin clinched fourth doubles with a second-set tiebreak, winning 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) over Karlyn Juckniewitz and Jamie Seo.

Methacton and North Penn both have matches Thursday at 3:30 p.m. The Warriors begin Pioneer Athletic Conference play hosting Norristown while the Knights visit Council Rock North in a Suburban One League nondivision contest.

“I like our group this year,” Liang said. “A lot of people came back. I miss our seniors of course but a lot of key people came back, they got better and I’m hoping we make team states – team states is always fun, go to Hershey together.”

Methacton came up a win short of qualifying for the PIAA-3A team tournament last season, falling to eventual District 1 and state champ Conestoga in the district quarterfinals.

Both Liang and Nouaime made the 2021 district 3A singles tournament – Liang topping Nouaime in the PAC third-place match 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 – each earning a win before falling in the second round.

“I had some struggles with my forehand earlier in high school years but I’ve been doing better,” Liang said. “It’s better this year so I’m hoping to win some of the matches that I lost last year.”

Nouaime, meanwhile, said she is continuing to improve on having a variety of options of how to play.

“I think overall for the past two years I’ve kind of been working on similar things – a lot more variation in my game, like going to the net more and slicing when I want to, not when I’m forced to,” she said. “So just a lot more variation just to mix up the pace in my matches. And I think I’ve improved more since last year but I want to improve more on it.”

The two have known each other since they were young but became a doubles pair in high school and in 2020 captured the District 1-3A title with a win over Council Rock South’s Dasha Chichkina and Emma Traktovenko. At the PIAA Championships, Liang and Nouaime advanced to the state final where they fell in three sets to defending champs Kat Wang and Marra Bruce of Peters Township 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

“She’s very aggressive and I think that with my strokes at back it just works really well,” said Nouaime of teaming with Liang. “And we mesh really well together.”

A year later, no one bested the Methacton pair. Liang and Nouaime defended their district title by rallying to beat Conestoga’s Leena Kwak and Ananya Krishnan 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 in the final. The teams met again in the PIAA 3A championship match with Liang and Nouaime against the victors, claiming state golf with a 6-3, 6-4 win in Hershey.

“Honestly I prefer playing doubles,” Liang said. “I like the communication, I like having someone having my back and me having their back. So I prefer playing doubles but it’s always good playing singles for my team but I always prefer the later part of the season where we play doubles