Girls Tennis: 2011 South Season Recap

Sports Town will review the 2011-12 school year during July. Today we are visiting the girls tennis season.

Peters Township's WPIAL and PIAA Class AAA championships in both team play and in doubles highlighted the high school girls tennis season for South-area Sports Town schools.

The Indians cruised to an undefeated record, beating Shady Side Academy in finals of both the WPIAL and PIAA tournaments. The Peters Township pairing of sophomore Stephanie Smith and freshman Sara Komer similarly twice beat the same team for its two gold medals. Smith and Komer -- who met each other in the Section 5-AAA singles tournament final -- defeated junior Annie Baich and sophomore Callie Frey of Mt. Lebanon in the WPIAL and PIAA Class AAA doubles tournament finals. Frey was also a WPIAL singles tournament qualifier.

"They all were pretty close matches, and we had to play hard for all of them if we wanted to do well," Komer said of a PIAA tournament in which she and Smith did not lose a set. "We just tried our best, and I guess we did our best as well."

Mt. Lebanon won its section (4-AAA), and the Blue Devils joined Upper St. Clair as WPIAL team semifinalists.

Another South highlights was South Park's Chelsea Carter taking first place in both the Section 5-AA singles and doubles tournaments (with and Sara Kaminsky in the latter). The team won its section once again, too.

"We were a pretty young team, but a lot of our players stepped up to replace the seniors we lost and filled their roles," Carter said. "We're happy."

Keystone Oaks freshman Maura Gray was the runner-up to Carter both teams -- in doubles, with partner Abby Palmer.