MORGANTOWN – The spring sports season is flying by, and both the Morgantown and University tennis teams are working hard to earn wins and play the best they can heading into the postseason.
On Monday evening, both UHS and MHS gathered at the WVU tennis complex for matches. The two teams were joined by Parkersburg South.
The girls’ teams played a round-robin style with each team facing off against each other once. For the boys, MHS and UHS both played the visiting Patriots, but not each other.
The Morgantown boys (6-2) earned a 5-2 victory over PSHS to start the evening. The Mohigans took three of the four singles matches played. Wyatt Abbitt defeated Austin Campart 8-1, Max Chen downed Tyler Wright 8-2, and Solas Chhin-Kreiner won 8-3 over Zach Farnsworth. The lone singles victory for the Patriots came from Michael Kestner over MHS’ Louis Zhang 8-4 in the third-ranked singles match.
The three doubles games mirrored that of the singles, with MHS dropping just one to its opponents.
Abbitt and Steven Tian took down Campari and Wright 8-2, but that was followed by Gabe Hissan and Trent Derenberger for Park South defeating Hayden Swoyer and Pratham Bhanushali from MHS 8-3. Finally, in the third-ranked doubles match, Max Warner and Chhin-Kreiner defeated Kestner and Farnsworth 8-1.
“We are fortunate to have a very deep and talented roster. Given that we have nine matches this week, we were able to handle Parkersburg South with a deeper combination of our roster,” MHS boys head coach Sabrina Hall said. “I am incredibly proud of the ways that my team continues to learn and grow.”
The UHS girls opened by defeating Parkersburg South 6-1, with the lone loss coming in the third-ranked doubles match. Then followed with a close victory over MHS 4-3 to improve to 10-0 on the season.
Sibling-duo Lyla and Sela Byers won 8-2 over PSHS and 8-2 over MHS. Lyla, just a sophomore, and Sela, a freshman, also played in singles matches. Lyla won both of hers while Sela split a pair.
Hannah Stemple, Sydney Takacs, and Emma Rusecki also picked up singles victories on the evening for UHS.
“We are getting there as a team, I am really happy with the confidence everyone is playing with and the way they’ve been there to lift their teammates,” UHS girls head coach Justin Byers said. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell when they (Lyla and Sela) are gelling, but they’re sisters. We started playing Sela at singles more to get more reps. Everyone is steadily improving.”
UHS swept the singles matches over Parkersburg South.
The Morgantown girls defeated the Patriots 7-0. Maya Greenlee, Sam Carver, Amy Lu and Anike Chadha all won singles matches. Pairings Greenlee and Carver, Chadha and Maddie Carver and Lu and Grace Forman won in doubles action.
The Hawks will play again this evening against John Marshall at the WVU tennis facility, while the Mohigans will travel to Buckhannon-Upshur on Wednesday.
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