Abington Heights’s Praneel Mallaiah makes a return during the PIAA District 2 Class 3A Semi-Final against North Pocono opponent Patrick Canley at Wilkes-Barre’s Kirby Park Tennis Courts.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
WILKES-BARRE — Freshmen captured both District 2 boys tennis singles titles when the tournament concluded May 11 at Kirby Park.
Praneel Mallaiah from Abington Heights, who remained unbeaten until the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament, downed Wilkes-Barre Area’s Michael Hamel, 6-3, 6-0, in the Class 3A championship match.
Hamel was making his second straight district championship match appearance.
Akhilesh Velaga, who attended Our Lady of Peace in Clarks Green before enrolling at Scranton Prep to begin high school, won the Class 2A title.
Mallaiah won all four of his tournament matches in straight sets.
The No. 1 singles player on Abington Heights team champions, Mallaiah defeated Wilkes-Barre Area’s Stanley Shimko, 6-0, 6-0, and Scranton’s Om Patel, 6-1, 6-0, on the first day of the tournament. He got through his toughest challenge in the semifinals, beating North Pocono’s Patrick Cawley, 6-4, 6-2.
Velaga, the third seed, beat the top two seeds on the final day. He topped Valley View’s Luke Kotcho, 6-0, 4-6, 6-0, in the final.
DISTRICT DOUBLES
Abington Heights made it a clean sweep of the District 2 Class 3A titles.
The Comets, who had already won the team and singles championships, got a doubles title when Sam Christman and Luke Morgan won an all-Abington Heights final from Domenic Peters and Ryan Salony, 6-1, 6-2.
Christman also won a doubles title last season with Sam Weis.
The Christman-Morgan team lost just one game in four sets on the first day of the tournament while Peters-Salony won three straight 6-1 sets before closing out the quarterfinal, 6-4.
Peters-Salony, the third seeds, knocked off second-seeded Hamel-Shimko from Wilkes-Barre Area, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, in the semifinals.
Christman-Morgan defeated North Pocono’s Cawley-Fred Kloss, 6-2, 6-1, in the other semifinal.
STATE TOURNAMENTS
Both the Abington Heights singles and doubles champions were eliminated by District 7 (suburban Pittsburgh) runners-up in the first round of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 3A tournaments May 27.
The team of Prerit Yadav-Dhruv Kulkarni from Franklin Regional defeated Christman-Morgan, 6-2, 6-1, in doubles.
North Allegheny’s Trey Davidson downed Mallaiah, 6-1, 6-0.
Juniata’s Max Lauver defeated Scranton Prep’s Velaga, 6-4, 6-2, in Class 2A singles.
