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LEHIGH VALLEY WEATHER

PHS boys tennis wins EPC titles

After going unbeaten in the regular season, the Parkland boys tennis team kept on winning last week at the East Penn Conference Championships.

The Trojans crowned champs in all three singles divisions and two of three doubles brackets at the EPC Tournament to take first place at the event.

Defending District 11 singles champ Derek Yao was the top seed at No. 1 singles in last week’s EPC Championships. Yao beat Pleasant Valley’s John Hargrave in the opening round, then took down Easton’s Aarush Makwanna in the second round before defeating Nazareth’s Vansh Signhal in the title match.

At No. 2 singles, Parkland’s Manav Patel was the top seed in his bracket and beat Whitehall’s Aiden Wells in the first round before taking down Nazareth’s Lorinc Von Platen in the semifinals. Patel dispatched of Liberty’s Erik Peterson in the title match.

The Trojans’ Jacky Zhang was seeded third at No. 3 singles. he beat Nazareth’s Chase Skutches in the quarterfinals then upset No. 2 seed Cole Stuchko of Emmaus in semifinals and did the same to top-seeded Liam Bulman of Liberty in finals to make it a PHS sweep in singles.

Parkland’s No. 3 doubles team of Noah Elijovich and Pravav Senthilkumar and No. 4 doubles team of Matt Huang and Ajay Gade were both seeded first in their brackets and won three straight matches to take titles at the league tournament.

The Trojans’ No. 2 doubles team of Doyoon Kim and Tyson Noto were seeded second at leagues and finished second in the tournament.

All three Parkland singles players qualified for the District 11 singles tournament, which began Monday.

Yao, the top seed in Class 3A, beat unseeded Logan Ritter (Freedom) 6-0, 6-1 in the opening round and then took out No. 9 seed Alexander Ahnert (Southern Lehigh) 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinal round.

Patel was seeded fourth at districts and opened the tournament with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Oscar Avila (Freedom) before falling to No. 5 seed Makwanna 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinal round.

Zhang was unseeded for districts and pulled out a 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over No. 6 seed Luke D’Angelo (Liberty) in the first round before falling to No. 3 seed Vanshi Singhal (Nazareth) 6-4, 6-2 in quarterfinals.

Semifinals and finals were scheduled for Wednesday, after Press deadlines. Yao was set to meet Makwanna again in the semifinal round with No. 2 seed Chris Stone (Emmaus) and Singhal competing in the other semifinal.

The Parkland boys tennis team followed an unbeaten regular season with a team title at last week’s East Penn Conference Championships.CONTRIBUTED PHOTO