Area tennis teams eliminated

BETHLEHEM — The Jim Thorpe tennis team wrapped up a successful season with a strong showing at the District 11 Class 2A Doubles Tournament at Lehigh University on Monday.

Olympian head coach Norb Lienhard saw a pair of his doubles teams notch wins in the first round, before eventually bowing out.

“I’m really happy overall, with the girls and their season,” Lienhard said. “I’m happy with how everyone played and we had as good of a season as we could hope for — actually better than we hoped.”

That season was capped yesterday when the teams of Gabby Nunez and Sophia Samoleski, and Evelyn Flores and Chloe Getz, reached the second round before falling.

Samoleski and Nunez overcame some early nerves to take out the Saucon Valley team of Maisie Leidich and Paige Penizotto. After the Olympians dropped the first set 6-2, Lienhard talked them down a bit.

“They weren’t playing well at first and they were understandably nervous,” Leinhard said. “I just tried to tell them after the first set that they were the better team.

“They found their composure and I’m happy they played better and played the way they were capable of playing.”

The Olympians battled back, taking the middle set 6-3, before nabbing a tight third-set tiebreak, 10-7.

In the second round, the pair had the unenviable task of playing the tournament’s No. 1 from Moravian Academy and lost in straight sets.

The Jim Thorpe team of Getz and Flores had a similar start, dropping the opening set to Salisbury’s Marcie Silberman and Maisie Oliver, 6-2

“Similar to our other team, Chloe and Evelyn were a little nervous and Salisbury was just coming up with one more shot,” Lienhard said. “But eventually, Chloe started playing well up at the net and Evelyn was solid from the baseline — like we knew they could play — and they settled in and came out on top.”

The Olympian duo took the second set 6-1 and grabbed the tiebreak in the third, 10-6.

In the second round, they drew the tournament’s No. 3 three seed from Allentown Central Catholic and lost in straight sets.

The Jim Thorpe tandem of Christy McLean and Trista Gehris had the tough task of playing against the draw’s No. 2 seed of Saucon Valley’s Julia Hernandez and Serena El Banna in the opening round and actually came out of the gates strong.

But after grabbing a 2-1 lead in the opening set, the Olympians saw Hernandez and El Banna rattled off 11 straight games to close outt he match.

“I’m extremely proud of the girls and the season we’ve had,” Lienhard said. “They did so well and came together as a team and it was just a pleasure to see.”

Other local talent also had nice showing in the tournament.

In Class 2A, the Tamaqua duo of Sabrina Pratt And Megan Oswald defeated Bailley Reilly and Guenn Strasser of Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg, 6-4 7-5, to advance to the second round before losing to Saucon Valley’s No. 2 seeded team of Hernandez and El Banna.

In Class 3A, Pleasant Valley’s Riley Wagner and Hope Hoppe lost in the opening round to No. 6 seed Veronica Lynn and Margeuux Donchez of Liberty, 6-1, 6-2.