Saint Vincent freshman Dave Cenkner was named the Presidents' Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week.
Cenkner, a Mount Pleasant graduate, went 6-0 last week as the Bearcats finished the PAC slate 7-0 and clinched the first regular-season title in program history.
With the turn of events in the weather this week, it’s hard to believe that Mount Pleasant was in sweats on snow-covered grounds last week. The teams had their first meet against Hempfield and Southmoreland.
“It was a good first meet,” said Mount Pleasant head coach Shawn Thompson. “It as a scrimmage-type meet for trying different things and getting the kids on the track for the first time. We’re at the base of the mountain and haven’t been outside much.”
Mount Pleasant’s teams are in a new situation this year – they have been realigned to Class AAA from Class AA.
“We actually moved to Class AAA,” said Thompson. “We’re the smallest school in state of Pennsylvania in Class AAA. There are going to be some growing pains with that.”
One cool thing that will help Mount Pleasant as it makes its class adjustment is the fact that the junior high classes and high school classes are all in the same building.
The Mount Pleasant girls’ basketball team (10-13) was busy when Sports Town talked to head coach Scott Giacobbi last week. By Wednesday night (March 20), the girls’ had defeated Albert Gallatin in the first round of Laurel Highlands’ undergrad tournament. In the second round, the Vikings had beaten the Leopards of Belle Vernon.
“We’re waiting to see what happens with the Laurel Highlands/Upper St. Clair game,” Giacobbi said.
The undergrad tournament is really an “underclass” tournament. “It’s no one who was a senior [the past season] - only the underclass remnants of the varsity team plus a couple of the other folks we get together. We just go down and get a little preview of next season’s team.”
Current sophomore guard Alexa Szelong was the Vikings leading scorer in 2012-13, but she was injured and unable to play last Wednesday night. Likewise, freshman Morgan Barlock stepped up and performed well for Mount Pleasant.
“She shot the ball a ton successfully,” Giacobbi said.
Overall, the tournament was a fun extension to the Vikings’ season, but it also served an even bigger purpose.
“It’s kinda the traditional start of our next year’s season,” Giacobbi said.
Saint Vincent freshman Dave Cenkner was named the Presidents' Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week.
Cenkner, a Mount Pleasant graduate, led Saint Vincent to its first-ever win over Grove City. Cenkner was one of the main factors, going 2-0 in the match, including a pair of wins over the reigning PAC Player of the Year, Peter Riley.
The Vikings (13-10, 8-4) posted major improvements this season. But they suffered some tough luck in the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs preliminary round.
Head coach Tony Splendore explained. “Going into the [prelim game with Knoch] we had been playing a rotation of seven players. Two days before the game, I found out that one of my players had pneumonia.” That player was 6’1” junior Luke Liprando, a key rebounder for Mount Pleasant.
Liprando was not able to play any sports until February 25.
“So the rotation was at six,” Splendore continued. “In the first quarter, we had a boy get hurt and were down to five in the game. .. I had to move a guard into a post position, and it was an unfamiliar situation for him. As a unit, offense-wise we were not running on all cylindars. The difference in the game was that we got out-rebounded.”
The cool thing for Mount Pleasant is that the 2012-13 season brought signs of things to come. Splendore elaborated.
“I think we’re going in the right direction – the team last year won 4 games under head coach Jeremy Yetter. This season, we won 13 games. That’s a substantial improvement. In the games we lost, we’ve had the ball at the end.”
“We’re learning how to win and gaining confidence,” said Splendore. “Out of the top seven players, the boys have six coming back.”
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