WILKES-BARRE – Abington Heights followed up a perfect boys tennis regular season by advancing to the state tournament as a team and sending a doubles team to Hershey for another state event.
The season came to an end May 26 at the Hershey Indoor Racquet Club when sophomore Praneel Mallaiah and senior Luke Morgan were knocked out of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Doubles Championships.
Cumberland Valley’s Sami Kazi-Ross Kluger defeated Mallaiah-Morgan, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-4, in a lengthy first-round Class 3A battle.
Abington Heights was eliminated by Unionville, 5-0, May 16 in the first round of the PIAA Class 3A team tournament at the TK Tennis Academy in Kingston.
The Comets were competitive in defeat.
Sam Christman sent the No. 2 singles match to a third set. Domenic Peters took No. 3 singles to a tiebreaker in the first set. At No. 1, Mallaiah won three games in each set before losing to Matt Miller.
District 2 Class 3A
Abington Heights took an unbeaten record into the state tournament after it shut out Wilkes-Barre Area, Berwick and Valley View on the way to the district team championship.
The Comets defeated Valley View, 3-0, in the May 9 final at Kirby Park.
Christman and Peters won, 6-0, 6-0, at second and third singles. Luke Morgan-Liam Farrell won, 6-1, 6-1, at first doubles.
Mallaiah and Christman each made the semifinals of the singles tournament and then were part of the all-Abington Heights doubles final
Mallaiah-Morgan defeated Christman-Peters, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).
PIAA Class 2A
Masterman’s Kevin McHale-Daniel Li eliminated Scranton Prep’s Akhilesh Velaga-Ethan Borick, 6-0, 6-4, in the first round of the state doubles tournament.
District 2 Class 2A
Velaga-Borick dropped just eight games in eight sets on the way to the doubles title which it captured with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Bill Hall-Ansarali Atabayev from Wyoming Seminary.
Velaga reached the singles final where he lost to Western Wayne’s Tristan Vivona, 6-0, 6-0.
Borick made the quarterfinals in singles.
