A pair of West Hills area teams will look to make their mark this week when play gets underway in the 2025 WPIAL Class 2A Boys Tennis Team Championships.
Montour, which finished Section 2 play with a 5-1 record – good for second place behind South Park – and Carlynton, which went 2-4 in the same section and finished fourth, will open play Tuesday, April 29.
Montour, which is 7-5 overall, enters the tournament as the No. 11 seed in the 16-team field. The Spartans will take on No. 6 seed Hampton, which went 5-1 in Section 3 and 8-4 overall.
That match will take place at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hampton Community Park.
The Talbots finished second in Section 3 behind North Catholic.
Carlynton, when went 3-6 overall, is the No. 15 seed and will battle the tournament’s second-seeded team in Valley, which won the Section 1 title with a 7-0 mark and is 10-0 overall.
That match will take place at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Valley High School.
The winners of Tuesday’s opening-round matches will move on to quarterfinal action at a day and time to be determined. The championship matches will be played Wednesday, May 7, at the Janet L. Swanson Tennis Center at Washington & Jefferson College. The top three finishing teams will advance to the PIAA Tournament, which begins with first-round matches Tuesday, May 13.
Montour coach Eric D’Antonio said his lineup will consist of John Rohrkaste, Jonah Camardese and Trey Varga at Nos. 1 through 3 singles respectively. Rohrkaste enters the tournament with a 19-3 record and already has qualified for next month’s PIAA singles tournament.
Camardese, who teamed with Rohrkaste a year ago to win the WPIAL doubles title, is 11-6 this season in singles and lost just one section match. Varga is 10-7 with one section loss in his first full season playing singles.
Braden Kulak and Dom Passaro are the Spartans’ No. 1 doubles unit. Kulak played a few matches at No. 2 doubles last year but is in his first full season at No. 1. Passaro is new to tennis and has “come along nicely,” D’Antonio said.
Scot Berg and Rave Mamurjonov, both of whom are new to tennis, make up the Spartans’ second doubles unit.
“We have a solid No. 1 player in (Rohrkaste) but most of our other players have to learn the game from scratch every year,” D’Antonio said. “The athletic kids who buy in figure it out and make our program strong.
“It is fun to compete with the schools that are traditionally known as tennis powers, and we have made a name for ourselves in the WPIAL.”
Carlynton coach Jake Trombetta said Max Klein will play at first singles, Ian Robb at No. 2 singles and Leo Shorthouse at No. 3 singles.
The Cougars’ No. 1 doubles duo consists of Hayden Wertz and Dom Pelescak while three players rotate at No. 2 doubles: Dom Hixenbaugh, Austin Gamble and Jimmy Kearns.
Trombetta said the Cougars entered the season with only three experienced players in Klein, Robb and Shorthouse.
“The other five players were playing tennis for the first time,” Trombetta said.
That meant they had to basically learn from scratch.
“The first couple practices were challenging,” Trombetta said. “But the boys were awesome. They listened. They showed up and they continued to get better.
“It was an enjoyable experience, coaching them on and off the court.”
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