MORGANTOWN — The 2023 WVSSAC state tennis tournament is set to begin Thursday morning from the state capital and both University and Morgantown high schools have multiple athletes making the trip to compete in both the team and individual brackets.
Each school qualified teams for the team finals. The Hawks send the girls, while the Mohigans send both the boys’ and girls’ teams.
For UHS head coach Justin Byers and his girls, the opportunity to compete for the school’s first team title in 30 years is extremely exciting.
“Every position will matter, every match,” Byers said. “All of us are extremely excited to be there, years of work individually for these girls has led to this. ‘Proud’ would be the right word.”
The four singles spots for UHS will be, one through four, sophomore Lyla Byers, junior Emma Rusiecki, senior Sydney Takacs, and freshman Sela Byers.
The four of them will also make up two of the doubles teams for UHS, with the Byers sisters playing in the top spot. Rusiecki and Takacs will occupy the second doubles team spot for UHS, while Emma Dafner and Hannah Stemple will join their teammates as the third-slotted doubles team.
“A state title would mean a lot for tennis in the area,” Coach Byers said. “The southern part of the state has a really great tennis community. This area is on the rise and success in this tournament will help increase awareness and growth.”
Lyla Byers and Rusiecki will also compete as individuals in the girls’ singles bracket.
“We have two extremely talented players in singles which speaks well for our program,” their coach said. “For either of them to win, they are going to have to keep their emotions in check and stay focused.”
The Mohigans will send both the boys’ and girls’ squads to compete in the team bracket.
Freshman Maya Greenlee will be the lone singles player competing individually, but she will be joined in the team tournament by seniors Sam Carver and Amy Lu, junior Grace Forman, sophomore Maddie Carver and fellow freshman Anika Chadha.
The boys’ team will occupy the four spots in singles with senior Max Phillips-Hartley, senior Bennet Hall, junior Wyatt Abbitt and freshman Max Chen.
Phillips-Hartley and Hall will also play as the top doubles team. Abbitt will be joined by fellow junior Steven Tian for the second doubles spot, while Chen will be joined by fellow freshman Solas Chhin-Kreiner.
“We have talked about the gift of depth in our team this year,” MHS boys’ coach Sabrina Hall said. “Now we are starting to see the impact of that depth with the representation we have at states. This is a great sign for the fast improvement and development of tennis coming out of Morgantown.”
The singles players for the MHS boys team all qualified for the singles tournament as the top four players from the Region 1 qualifier, something Hall describes as an “incredible feat and honor” for her players.
“For us, the state tournament is a reward for a well-played season, but also the building block for next,” Hall said. “Competition will be tough from the start, but we’ve been building all season and we are trusting what brought us this far.”
Tournament play will begin Thursday at 8:00 a.m. in Charleston.
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