PIAA TENNIS: Abington Heights, Wyoming Seminary earn way into quarterfinals

Abington Heights and Wyoming Seminary continued their undefeated seasons with victories in the first round of the PIAA Team Championships in boys’ tennis Tuesday at Birchwood Racquet Club.

Prayush Mallaiah and Brady Comstock posted wins in singles, and Liam Farrell and Bryce Comstock had a win at No. 1 doubles for Abington Heights, which advanced to the Class 3A quarterfinals for the first time since 2015 with a 3-2 win over Radnor, the fourth-place team from District 1.

Abington Heights (16-0) faces Upper St. Clair, the runner-up in District 7, on Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the Hershey Racquet Club. Upper St. Clair defeated District 8 champion Taylor Allderdice, 4-1.

Wyoming Seminary overmatched District 3 champion Camp Hill, 3-0, in a Class 2A first-round matchup. Billy Hall, the District 2 Class 2A singles champion, defeated Sam Sachs, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 1 singles, and Thomas Hill-James Bobeck and Hubert Huang-Aarav Gupta earned wins in doubles.

The Blue Knights (16-0) will face District 10 champion Cathedral Prep (15-3), which defeated Blackhawk, the third-place team from District 7, 5-0. The quarterfinal match is Friday at 2:30 p.m.

In Abington Heights’ win, Mallaiah defeated Carter McIlwain, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (2), in a back-and-forth battle at No. 1 singles. Brady Comstock defeated JoJo Egg-Krings, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 3 singles. Both Comets remained undefeated this season.

Farrell and Bryce Comstock defeated the team of Eli Knight-Jacob Kwon, 6-0, 7-5, at No. 1 doubles.

Radnor received wins from Max Spellerman, who beat William Arp, 6-4, 7-5, and the doubles team of Agasta Bhadani and Wright Perry, which beat Brody Goldberg and Sebastian Meyer, 6-2, 6-1.

Abington Heights had lost its previous seven matches in the first round, including four in a row to Unionville. The last two times the Comets reached the quarterfinals at the Hershey Racquet Club, they defeated Harriton (2014) and Radnor (2015) before losing in the semifinals.

Upper St. Clair has a talented singles lineup that swept matches against Taylor Allderdice. Carter Litchman beat Barak Raz, 6-3, 5-7, and 6-2, at No. 1. Sidney Weissert beat Alex Friedman, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Ethan Yealy, a freshman, defeated Kiran Arunachalam, 6-3, 7-5.

Daniel Smith and Rex Wantje defeated Liam Rosenberg and Xavier Hay, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, for Upper St. Clair’s other point.

In Class 2A, Cathedral Prep had straight-set wins in all five matches against Blackhawk. Gavin Ferretti beat Ben Crefield, 6-2, 6-1. Charabel Moubarak defeated Mike Lanigan, 6-0, 6-0. Arjun Noticewaia, a freshman, beat Luke Mason 6-1, 6-0.

Joe Prichard and Chris Scott teamed for a win at No. 1 doubles, and Sam English and Clark Brown had a win at No. 2 doubles for Cathedral Prep.