WILKES-BARRE – Lauren Carroll from Abington Heights became one of just two players to reach the semifinals of District 2-4 Class 3A Subregional girls tennis in singles, doubles and team play.

A semifinalist in the singles tournament, Carroll was part of the Comets making it to the team championship match. At presstime, she was still in contention for the doubles title after again advancing to the semifinals.

Carroll had already played a role in getting Abington Heights to the team championship match with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Katie Meale at number-one singles during the 4-1 semifinal win over Williamsport.

In the singles tournament, Carroll made it through Oct. 12, the first day of the tournament at Kirby Park.

Carroll opened with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Pittston Area’s Abby Connors before running into a tough match from North Pocono’s Sarah Sposito in the quarterfinals where she advanced with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win.

“That was just a really interesting match,” Carroll said. “She is a really great competitor. Having played North Pocono during the season and watching her play Clare (DellaValle), I knew it was going to be long and I was just going to have to give it everything I had.”

Carroll was able to recover from losing the second set.

“In the third set, I knew I had to be more aggressive,” Carroll said. “She had started playing to my weaknesses, so I knew I had to figure out a way to be more aggressive with my strengths.”

Carroll lost in the semifinals to Hazleton Area’s Lily Nowak, 7-5, 6-0.

The singles tournament established that Hazleton Area had the district’s top two singles players in champion Stephanie Mazurek and Nowak.

The Lady Cougars used those two to quickly take a 2-0 lead in Monday’s team championship, putting the Lady Comets in position to have to take the other three matches if they were going to win their eighth straight District 2 team title.

Abington Heights put together a comeback before falling, 3-2.

Savannah Blaum and Julia Poulson-Houser won second doubles, 6-0, 6-3, over Sophie Sebo and Ashley Garcia.

Brooke Dennison and Holly Ross were behind, 3-1, in the second set before rallying to defeat Adrianna Bohman-Alyssa Mazurek at first doubles, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Lauren Koczwara extended several games with Sofia Losen in a third singles match that lasted even longer than the three-set doubles match. On the next point after Dennison-Ross tied the team score, however, Losen was able to secure the Hazleton Area championship with a 6-4, 6-2 win.

Carroll defaulted to Stephanie Mazurek after dropping the first set, 6-1, in order to rest her rotator cuff tendonitis for the doubles tournament being played the next two days.

Nowak beat DellaValle, 6-0, 6-0.

DellaValle had won one match in district singles, beating Jules Anderson from Delaware Valley, 6-1, 6-0, before falling to fourth-seeded Phoebe Cykosky from Wallenpaupack, 6-2, 6-4.

Carroll and DellaValle teamed to get through Tuesday’s first day of the doubles tournament.

Koczwara-Blaum won one match before falling to top-seeded Nowak-Losen, 6-0, 6-2. They beat Hannah Larsen-Bryanna Rose from Delaware Valley, 7-5, 7-5.

Abington Heights’ Lauren Carroll advanced to the semifinals of the District 2 Class 3A Girls Singles Tournament before losing to Hazleton Area’s Lily Nowak.
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_Tennis-1-3.jpg.optimal.jpgAbington Heights’ Lauren Carroll advanced to the semifinals of the District 2 Class 3A Girls Singles Tournament before losing to Hazleton Area’s Lily Nowak. Abington Journal file photo

Abington Heights’ Lauren Carroll advanced to the semifinals of the District 2 Class 3A Girls Singles Tournament before losing to Hazleton Area’s Lily Nowak.
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_Tennis1.CMYK_.jpg.optimal.jpgAbington Heights’ Lauren Carroll advanced to the semifinals of the District 2 Class 3A Girls Singles Tournament before losing to Hazleton Area’s Lily Nowak. Abington Journal file photo

By Tom Robinson

For Abington Journal

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