Rina Hanumali and Susan Arp combined to win the District 2 Class 3A doubles championship last season.
Tom Robinson | Abington Journal
Susan Arp and Rina Hanumali are back and leading the way as the defending champion Abington Heights girls tennis team is off to a 3-0 start.
A year ago, Hanumali and Arp formed the league season singles lineup with four-time District 2 champion Bella Peters, who has graduated and moved to National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I tennis at Lehigh University. They also teamed in the postseason to win the District 2 Class 3A doubles title.
Now, Arp and Rina Hanumali are at the top of the singles lineup in the first two spots, joined by No. 3 player Sona Hanumali.
Abington Heights is also experienced in the doubles lineup where it lost just five games total through the season’s first three matches.
Only Scranton challenged the Comets, who won Lackawanna League and District 2 Class 3A team titles last year, so far this season. Abington Heights has not given up a team point while extending its league winning streak to 19, dating back to a loss to eventual champion Scranton Prep late in the 2020 season.
Abington Heights won the opening match with Scranton, 5-0, but Maia Philbin and Tejshree Patel managed to take Arp and Sona Hanumali to 7-5 in the second set of two singles matches.
Arp has since lost just four games in four sets at No. 1 singles in wins over Western Wayne and Honesdale.
Rina Hanumali has lost just five games in six sets on the season. She has won her last three sets, 6-0, and the two before that, 6-1.
Sona Hanumali has also won all but one game in her last two matches.
The No. 1 doubles team of Faith Bennett-Hanna Adonizio has won 36 of 38 games through three matches.
Neveah Vendrell, Mary Booth and Bernie Mullen have rotated, each playing two of the three matches at No. 2 doubles, playing once in each possible combination.
Every doubles set played this season has been decided at 6-0 or 6-1.
