The Tyrone girls tennis team played a pair of away matches this week, Altoona on Monday and Huntingdon on Wednesday. In the match at Huntingdon, the Lady Eagles gave Huntingdon everything they could have wanted and more, before falling 4-3.
In a long, and very tough match that had both girls going the limit, MaryElyn Hunter at number five singles, became the first Lady Eagle of the season to win a match, besting Victoria Easton 7-5, 6-3.
Then the Tyrone girls won both doubles matches. At number one doubles, Brittany Hosband and Kayla Patton defeated Sara Hopkins and Lauren Schmeck 8-1, and at number two, Amy Lewis and Laura Thompson downed Brittany McGraw and Emily Tapaphanas by an 8-4 count.
This was the Lady Eagles’ most competitive match with Lewis falling to Ashley Kifer 7-5 (tiebreaker), 6-2 at the number three singles and Elena Myers falling to Leah Shuck 6-2, 6-3 at the number four singles.
“This was a pretty competitive match. We had a real chance to win, but couldn’t quite pull it out,” said Tyrone tennis coach Mike Hample. If we could just crack through one or two more wins in singles. The doubles teams played well again, as has been their trend all year, and MaryElyn Hunter continued to play well. Give Kayla Patton a lot of credit at the number one singles. She lost to the Wang girl, who is probably the number one player in the district.”
In the Altoona match on Monday, the number two doubles team of Hosband and Hunter provided the only win for Tyrone in a 6-1 victory for Altoona and the number one doubles duo of Lewis and Thomas played well before falling 8-7 in a tiebreaker.
“There is a trend developing,” said Hample. “The doubles continue to be very competitive, but the singles aren’t doing as well as I would like.”
Monday
Altoona 6 Tyrone 1
Singles
Emily Diviney (A) def. Kayla Patton 6-0, 6-0.
Brooke Bovard (A) def. Brittany Hosband 6-0, 6-0.
Kelsie Shortsleeve (A) def. Amy Lewis 6-0, 6-0.
Amanda Simpson (A) def. Elena Myers 6-1, 6-0.
Emily Knott (A) def. MaryElyn Hunter 6-1, 6-1.
Doubles
Shelby Mauk/Bernedette Finochio (A) def. Lewis/Laura Thompson 8-7 (Tiebreaker 7-5).
Hosband/Hunter (T) def. Alyssa Stangl/Allison Schmitt 8-5.
Wednesday
Huntingdon 4 Tyrone 3
Singles
Jennie Wang (H) def. Patton 6-0, 6-0.
Lera Tsyukova (H) def. Hosband 6-2, 6-1.
Ashley Kifer (H) def. Lewis 7-5, 6-2.
Leah Shuck (H) Myers 6-2, 6-3.
Hunter (T) def. Victoria Easton 7-5, 6-3
Doubles
Hosband/Patton (T) def. Sara Hopkins/Lauren Schmeck 8-1.
Lewis/Thompson (T) def. Brittany McGraw/Emily Tapaphanes 8-4.
Exhibition
Myers/Kayli Gray (T) def. Hillary Zanylo/Jen Leitzeil 8-3.
Chelsea Grove/Madison Hopkins (H) def. Katy Sherry/Heather Jones 8-3.
