Unfortunately for the Trojan tennis team, its run in the PIAA Tournament didn’t take the team to championship weekend in Hershey. Parkland fell to Wissahickon 4-0 Tuesday in the first round of the state team tournament, which was played at Winning Touch Tennis in Allentown. The loss finished the season for Parkland, which ended with a 17-2 record, although singles player Nick Kshatri is still set to play in states in search of a singles title.

Ben Wolfe beat Nate Lyman in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0 to give Wissahickon a 1-0 lead in the match. After that though, nothing came easy for Wissahickon, the runner-up in District 1.

“I was very happy with the effort that we put out there,” said coach Mike Hingston. “It’s disappointing to lose a match like this, but our kids certainly did all they could today and I’m proud of them for that and for how they played all season long.”

Kshatri battled Andrew Tran, who will also be playing in the PIAA Tournament, but lost in three sets. In the third singles match, Aneesh Kapoor also went to three sets against Nimay Godbole, but dropped the third set 6-4.

“They’re strong in singles and especially with their top two players,” said Hingston. “We thought that we matched up well with them though and I knew it was going to be a very tight match that could go either way.”

Kishan Unjia and Alex Son battled back from a first-set loss in their doubles match to tie the match at one set a piece.

The team of Zane Peng and Greg Walsh battled Parkland to deuce and after a long contest was able to win the third set to clinch the victory for Wissahickon.

The doubles match featuring Parkland’s Nick Hawk and Alex Wu was one of the better matches of the day and was in the third set when it was halted after Wissahickon’s win in the other doubles contest clinched the match for Wissahickon. As in the other matches, Hawk and Wu fell behind when they lost the first set, but fought for a 7-6 (6) win in the second set.

“They [Wissahickon] come from a strong tennis district and they have a number of good players” Hingston said. “It’s always tough when you play teams from District 1 because of their depth.

“I think Nick [Kshatri] played a great match and it gives him the opportunity to see the quality of the players that he’ll face in states, so from that perspective, it was good to play a team like this.”

Kshatri, a senior making his first appearance in states as a singles player, has time to prepare for states as the singles portion of play doesn’t begin until May 27 at the Hershey Racquet Club. In his first state match, Kshatri will be facing Robby Shymanski, a freshman from Fox Chapel High School in District 7.