District 3 Tennis Tournament: Lebanon County Results

Over the past two weekends, tennis players from ELCO and Palmyra competed in the District 3 Tennis Championships, held at the Hershey Racquet Club.  Below are the details regarding their performances.

Doubles

AA

In the AA bracket, ELCO’s duo of Ali Bender and Camryn Lehr were awarded the #3 seed following their top four finish at the Lancaster-Lebanon League Championships

First Round (Friday, October 21)

In the first round, Bender and Lehr played the Brandywine Height’s team of Abby Davidheiser and Maci Rahrbaugh.  This match was won in two sets, with the hometown team moving onto play in the second round.

#3 Ali Bender / Camryn Lehr (ELCO) defeated Davidheiser/Rahrbaugh (Brandywine Heights) 6-4, 6-3

Quarterfinal Round (Friday, October 21)

Following the completion of the first round, the ELCO pairing faced off against Katherine Domby and Lauren Shook of Trinity, the Mid-Penn Conference AA Doubles Champions.  Again, Bender and Lehr won in straight sets, earning an invitation to report back to Hershey for Day 2 of the competition.

Bender / Lehr (ELCO) defeated Domby / Shook (Trinity) 6-4, 6-1

Semifinal Round (Saturday, October 22)

With victories in the first two rounds, Bender and Lehr returned to the Hershey Racquet Club on Saturday, set to take part in a semifinals match-up with York Catholic’s Carina  and Cydney Roberts, the sisters who were the YAIAA silver medalists.  ELCO took the first set, but were then handed defeat in each of the next two sets, earning a win for the York Catholic team.

Roberts / Roberts (York Catholic) defeated Bender / Lehr (ELCO) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2

Third Place Match (Saturday, October 22)

After losing in the semifinals, Bender and Lehr moved to the third place match, with a final opportunity to qualify for the PIAA Championships on the line.  In this match, they were given the challenge of facing another YAIAA pairing.  This time it was the York-Adams Doubles Champions, Olivia Roth and Elia Knox of Delone Catholic. While the ELCO girls battled hard, their opponent showed why they won their league’s gold and won the match in straight sets.  This loss ended the season for Ali Bender and Camryn Lehr, the seniors who had achieved many victories over the course of their high school careers as teammates.

Roth / Knox (Delone Catholic) defeated Bender / Lehr (ELCO) 6-2, 6-3

AAA

In the AAA bracket, Palmyra’s Nitya Patel and Marissa Nicholson earned their spot after earning silver at the Mid-Penn Conference Tennis Championship.

First Round (Friday, October 21)

In the first round, Patel and Nicholson were matched up against the team of Sophie Carson and Alex Gregory of Hempfield.  The Lebanon Countians won in a very tough three set match in order to advance to the quarterfinals.

Nitya Patel / Marissa Nicholson (Palmyra) defeated Carson/Gregory (Hempfield) 6-3, 2-6, 7-6

Quarterfinal Round (Friday, October 21)

After defeating one of the best team’s from the Lancaster-Lebanon League in three sets, Patel and Nicholson were matched up against another one of the L-L’s top teams.  It was Haley Miller, paired with another partner, who had won the gold at the L-L and had earned the #2 seed in this tournament.  Swapping partners from Manheim Township’s deep team, Jade Miller joined Haley for this tournament.  Regardless of the change, the talented duo from Township was able to take down Patel and Nicholson.  This was the last match for this talented pair from Palmyra, as they are both seniors.

Quarterfinals: #2 Miller/Miller (Manheim Twp) defeated Patel / Nicholson (Palmyra) Score not reported

Singles

AA

In the AA bracket, ELCO’s Ali Bender was Lebanon County’s lone representative in the singles competition.

First Round (Friday, October 14)

In the opening round, Bender was matched up against Abby Miller of York Suburban.  Miller was one of the top players from the York-Adams League during the regular season.  Bender was ready for the assignment, as she has a lot of experience in big matches and was coming off her third place finish at the Lancaster-Lebanon League Championship.  It was Bender who advanced after beating Miller in straight sets.

Bender (ELCO) defeated Miller (York Suburban) 6-2, 6-4

Quarterfinal Round (Friday, October 14)

After beating one YAIAA player, Bender was matched against York Catholic’s Carina Roberts.  Little did she know at the time that she would be playing against Roberts again a week later in the doubles competition.  Roberts entered into this match as the YAIAA champ and showed her skill, besting Bender in straight sets.

Roberts (York Catholic) defeated Bender (ELCO) 6-2, 6-2

AAA

On the AAA side, it was Nitya Patel of Palmyra who was Lebanon County’s only qualifier following her performance in the Mid-Penn Conference Tournament.  It was only fitting, as she was this year’s Lebanon County champion, beating Ali Bender in the finals.

First Round (Friday, October 14)

For the opening round, Patel drew Red Lion’s Lexi Lakatosh, the runner-up in the YAIAA Championship.  Lakatosh was able to defeat a hard fighting Patel over the course of two sets.  Lakatosh did advance, but lost in the next round to Riya Srinivas of Cumberland Valley, who is the player who stopped Patel in the Mid-Penn Championships.

Lakatosh (Red Lion) defeated Patel (Palmyra)  6-2, 6-4

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