The Abington Heights girls tennis team lived up to its billing in Friday morning’s season opener.
Abington Heights lost just four games across the five matches while defeating Delaware Valley, 5-0, in its Lackawanna League opener.
The Comets are ranked first among Big Schools in the Riverfront Sports Girls Tennis Super Six Power Rankings and Delaware Valley had opened the season as the fourth-ranked team.
Faith Bennett won, 6-0, 6-0, at third singles.
The doubles teams of Susan Arp-Hanna Adonizio and Bernie Mulin-Elina Toshi each dropped just one game.
Bella Peters won, 6-2, 6-0, at first singles.
Rina Hanumali was up 3-0 in the first set before winning by default.
Holy Redeemer opened its Wyoming Valley Conference season with a 4-1 win at MMI Prep in the only other match.
GOLF
Derek Johnson shot an even-par, 36 as Crestwood improved to 3-0, matching Hazleton Area for the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 lead with a 158-200 victory over Tunkhannock in a Division 1-2 crossover match.
Owen Blazick added a 38 in the win at Blue Ridge Trail.
Isaac Saullo shot a 41 and Ray Joseph a 43 to complete the team score.
Aidan Montross and Josh Brown had 48s to lead Tunkhannock.
Wyoming Valley West edged winless Wilkes-Barre Area, 189-191, in another crossover to reach .500 at 2-2.
Pittston Area (3-1) won for the third straight day, beating host Berwick, 114-128, in a match that was reduced to six holes because of rain.
Nanticoke slipped past MMI Prep, 202-203, in a meeting of winless WVC Division 3 teams.
Two Lackawanna League matches were played to 4½-4½ ties.
Mid Valley ended a 15-match, regular-season winning streak by defending Lackawanna Division 3 champion Lackawanna Trail with their tie.
The match included two of the three teams that began the day 2-0 in the division.
Lakeland (2-0 in the division and 2-1 overall) moved into the division lead over Lackawanna Trail (2-0-1, 4-0-1) and Mid Valley (2-0-1, 3-0-1).
Eddie Kaufman and Zach Kalinowski swept three points in the first foursome for Mid Valley, which used a split of three other matches to pick up the addition 1½ points to earn the tie.
Nathan Wescott won in singles and in better-ball with partner Adam Jones for Lackawanna Trail. Brayden Jones won his singles match and split in better-ball.
The other tie came in Division 1 between Honesdale and Valley View, two teams in search of their first divisional victory.
Western Wayne posted its first victory, 7-2, over Old Forge in Lackawanna Division 3.
Freshman Jamie Chapman finished at 3-over while winning in the minimum five holes in both singles and better-ball. Richie Reed and Morgan Coccodrilli combined to take all three points in their foursome. Dylan Davitt also won in singles and better-ball.
In other Lackawanna League matches: North Pocono defeated Wallenpaupack, 8-1, in Division 1; Scranton shut out Delaware Valley, 9-0, and Holy Cross edged West Scranton, 5-4, in Division 2; and Elk Lake downed Mountain View, 5½-3½, in Division 4.
MORE FRIDAY COVERAGE
Football: Coverage of the various openers. https://nepasportsnation.com/fall-sports/football/.
Golf showdown: Expanded coverage of the Scranton Prep-Abington Heights match. https://nepasportsnation.com/birdie-barrage-carries-cavaliers/
