IN Fox Chapel Area Winter 2016 | страница 23

PERFECT YEAR FOR GIRLS ’ TENNIS

When girls ’ tennis coach Alex Slezak observes his players during August preseason practices , he always enjoys seeing the improvements they made in the offseason . This year , those advances were strong enough to serve up a perfect regular season record of 9-0 and the program ’ s 21 st section championship . The girls proceeded to the WPIAL Class AAA team tournament and took third place , and then advanced to the PIAA Class AAA quarterfinals .

Individually , junior Amanda Nord won the section 3 individual singles championship for the first time , but her signature event is doubles tennis . This season she paired with freshman Charlotte James and the duo won the section and WPIAL Class AAA doubles titles . From there , the duo breezed through the PIAA Class AAA playoffs and became the number one doubles team in Pennsylvania . It was Amanda ’ s third WPIAL gold medal and her second time winning the state ’ s most coveted title in doubles tennis . Both Amanda and Charlotte were selected for the all-state team .

Photo Courtesy Hill ’ s Studio ox Chapel Area FOX CHAPEL AREA SCHOOL NEWS

ANOTHER BANNER YEAR FOR BOYS ’ GOLF

Last season , the boys ’ golf team topped the 500-victoriesmark in section play and then added to the scorecard in a big way again this year with 11 more wins . The success also marked the program ’ s 27 th section championship and cleared the way for yet another run in the WPIAL team playoffs .

After progressing all the way to the final WPIAL team championship game , the team broke the former WPIAL scoring record in that game . Despite the Foxes ’ stellar performance , the team lost its bid for the gold medal by only one point . While a second place finish is certainly a mark of great accomplishment , Coach Bryan Deal would like nothing better next season than to break their tendency to finish as the WPIAL runner-up , something that ’ s happened three out of the past four years .

Still , the good news was that four players advanced to the WPIAL Class AAA individual championship . Sophomore Gregor Meyer won the gold medal at the historic Oakmont Country Club golf course , and along with seniors Anthony

Cordaro and Alex Lawson , moved on to the PIAA Western Regional Invitational Championship . The results enabled Anthony and Alex to press on to the PIAA Class AAA individual playoffs , both for the second time .

In the end , the boys tied for sixth place and automatically made Pennsylvania ’ s all-state team . Not only were their scores the highest finish of any Fox Chapel Area High School boys ’ golfer since 1999 , it also was a fitting conclusion to their high school golf careers . Especially during their junior and senior years , the two see-sawed for the number one and number two positions on the team , but now , for once , they were even .

Photo Courtesy Hill ’ s Studio

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