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LEHIGH VALLEY WEATHER

PHS wins seventh straight title

Coming into Monday's LVC Girls Tennis Championship Tournament at Parkland High School, the expectations were certainly high for Parkland.

And perhaps the Lady Trojans exceeded those expectations, judging by the team's play from top to bottom.

The Trojans, who entered the tournament with a perfect 11-0 regular season record in conference play, captured first-place finishes in each of the tournament's six brackets en route to yet another league championship. Since the 2007 season, no other teams have been able to call themselves league champs.

"It's a strong team," head coach George Grim said. "Everybody did well. Despite two girls being very much under the weather today, they came through."

No. 1 singles player Jenna Peng, No. 2 singles player Anna Qiu and No. 3 singles player TuQuyen Pham all remained undefeated on the season with their first-place finishes.

"The singles players have been dominant all year, and they continued that today," Grim said. "They did have some good competition today."

Peng captured two dominating wins in her first two rounds of the tournament, but her finals match against Liberty's Samantha Peterson wasn't as easy-going.

But despite feeling under the weather, Peng was able to outlast Peterson in the end, capturing her second straight LVC gold with a 10-5 victory.

"She was definitely tougher than I thought she would be," Peng said. "My focus lasted longer towards the end, so I was able to close it out."

"Samantha Peterson from Liberty really improved over the year," Grim said. "She beat Flannery [Johnston], the No. 2, and she was ahead of Jenna [Peng] for a while. Fortunately, Jenna had enough strength left to finish it out."

Qiu and Pham, who both entered the tournament with 8-0 records, found themselves in tight finals battles as well. But both were able to pull out victories when it mattered most.

Qiu defeated Freedom's Kaleigh DiNoto in the finals, 10-7, while Nguyen was able to outlast Freedom's Federica Maranzana, 10-8, to capture another gold for the Trojans.

Parkland's No. 2 doubles team of Colleen Wylie and Rachel Wong remained unbeaten after earning gold with a 10-3 win over Emmaus's Katrina Guido and Amy Yang in the finals.

The Trojan No. 4 doubles duo Libby Gardner and Kristen McCarty also remained perfect on the year with a first place finish over Whitehall's Celine Asmar and Emily Yenser in the finals.

In the final match of the tournament, No. 3 doubles team Shelby Knafo and Emily Hanson sought to keep the streak alive of first place finishes.

The two were stationed in a tough match against Nazareth's Amber Achenbach and Juliana Mitchell, who threatened to hand the Trojans their first silver. Instead, Knafo and Hanson went on a run to finish the match, and the two came away with the 10-7 victory.