In recent years, the Parkland girls' tennis team has been the class of the district competition. Over the last four seasons, the Lady Trojans entered the District 11 Class AAA team championships as the No. 1 seed and went on to win the last three titles.

But as they entered this season under first-year head coach Michael Hingston, the team knew it wouldn't be as easy to get back to that level. By graduating many vital parts from their 2013 championship team, including Jenna Peng, the 2013 district singles runner-up, and TuQuyen Pham, who teamed up with Peng to win the 2013 doubles tournament, this team wasn't as loaded as recent years.

The team also lost Anna Qui, who reached the district quarterfinals last season, and Colleen Wylie. All three players in last year's district singles tournament reached the quarterfinals.

But despite coming up short in last week's team championships against Nazareth (4-1), Hingston's team had a remarkable campaign.

"I think it was a very successful season," Hingston said. "We were in the shadows of some pretty good teams. We lost a lot to graduation, and we had a very inexperienced group."

While the Lady Trojans would have liked to earn their fourth straight district title, they were faced with the reality of replacing a number of the area's top players from last year.

"We were not going to compare ourselves in any way, shape or form to the teams that came before us," Hingston said. "It was obvious to the girls that we didn't have that kind of firepower. That was an exceptional group that comes along only but once every so often. And they recognized that."

None of the Lady Trojans' singles players had experience at those positions coming into the year. Considering that fact, the Trojans' 10-2 season the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC) may even be more impressive.

Rachel Wong suited up at No. 1 singles throughtout the season, while No. 2 Shelby Knafo and No. 3 Velika D'Souza also were in singles.

"Most of our players never played varsity tennis before," Hingston said. "The bulk of our team was really sophomores. Our first four positions were seniors, and after that everybody was a sophomore. We had a unique mix of young and old. Even the seniors, if they had varsity experience, it was as doubles players. It was a big jump, especially with the talent that was out there throughout the conference and district this year."

Knafo and Wong both qualified for the district singles tournament, and Knafo won her first-round match over East Stroudsburg North's Kristen Lassell (6-0, 6-0) on October 1.

But it was the duo's run in the doubles tournament a week later that was even more impressive. The two played together in doubles action four times in the regular season, and their cohesion has grown over the last couple of months. It culminated in a semifinals appearance, before they came up short to East Stroudsburg South's Brittany Poje and Kaitlyn Poje.

"They really were a nice luxury to have when we needed them in doubles," Hingston said. "They are very good doubles players individually, but especially as a team. They really compliment each other's games well. For them to make it to the semifinals in the district doubles was really a great accomplishment."

It's a ways down the road, but the Lady Trojans are faced with the same challenge going into next year, replacing their entire singles lineup.

"We graduate all three singles players," Hingston said. "If you look at the other top teams ahead of us, whether it's in the conference or the district-Nazareth, Liberty and Southern Lehigh-their teams will all have pretty much their whole team coming back. At least in the singles, they have their top players coming back."