Five finals matches make for five wins for Tigers, as Blackhawk finishes second
BEAVER — After dealing with postponements twice already this season, the MAC tennis tournament finally took place Thursday, and for the Moon Tigers, the wait was well worth it.
With sunny skies, warm weather and a little bit of wind, it was the perfect day for tennis.
Then the finals came, and it looked like a perfect storm of Moon tennis. Five courts were aligned side by side and at least one Moon player stood on every single court, as they looked to take home the top spot in their respective bracket.
Before the finals even began, the Tigers had captured the team title, but they wanted to take it one step further. They swept all five final matches.
“It’s great to see because they have worked hard this year and we’ve had a difficult year with the weather,” Moon head coach Mike Lucenete said. “It’s great to see them get all the way through, get in a full match and play this well, too.”
First, it was senior Logan D’Angelo who cruised through the first singles bracket, defeating players from Riverside and West Allegheny to secure his spot in the finals. D’Angelo, who went undefeated through the regular season, defeated Miles Collins of Hopewell in the finals, 10-2.
After his quick match, D’Angelo barely took a break before finding a spot along the fence to cheer on the rest of his teammates. Junior Nick Magnelli was the next Tiger to do it. As the No. 2 seed, Magnelli defeated Anden Acitelli from West Allegheny, then Zack Greade from Mars to secure his spot in the finals. He went on to capture the second singles championship by defeating No. 4 seed Kane Mateer of Beaver in the finals, 10-2.
R.J. Kanith and Gautam Pulivarthi earned the third title for the Tigers. They defeated Logan Blazer and Scott Ball from Neshannock,10-4, at the second doubles position. In the first doubles final, Garrett Ley and Brian Ruppel defeated Blackhawk’s Alex Jena and Austin Lambert by a score of 10-7.
Avant Shetty was the final Tiger to capture his finals win as he captured the third singles title, defeating Blackhawk’s Bryan Culler, 10-6.
While the Tigers captured all five brackets and the team title, Blackhawk finished second and had competitors in two of the five final matches.
Sectional single tournaments begin next week on May 1, while the WPIAL singles tournaments will be held on the May 3 and 4. Doubles tournaments will be held the following week, with sectionals starting on May 7 and WPIALs beginning on May 10.