NEPA Sports Nation

State medalists lead doubles seeds

Defending district champions and returning Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state bronze medalists Madeline DeFaber-Schumacher and Bella Aniska from Riverside have been established as the top Class 2A seed for the District 2 doubles tournament.

Rina Hanumali and Susan Arp from unbeaten team champion Abington Heights have the top seed in Class 3A.

The tournament gets underway Saturday at 9 a.m. with Class 2A at Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre and Class 3A at the North Pocono Middle School.

Both the 34-team Class 2A tournament and the 21-team Class 3A event will proceed until the four semifinalists have been determined.

The semifinals and finals are scheduled for Monday at Kirby Park, beginning at 1 p.m.

District 2 seeded the top eight teams in Class 2A and the top six in Class 3A.

Wyoming Seminary and Scranton Prep each have two seeded teams in Class 2A while Abington Heights and West Scranton have two seeded teams in 3A.

Ella Krypel, who won a district doubles title in 2019 with Nicole Joanlanne, and Ilana Rosenthal form the second-seeded team from Wyoming Seminary in Class 2A. Krypel was also a district finalist in singles in 2020 and Rosenthal played in the singles final this year as a freshman.

Scranton Prep, which reached the district team final against unbeaten champion Wyoming Seminary, has the third seed with the team of Alyssa Wigley and Annie Johnson.

The remaining Class 2A seeds are: fourth, Caroline Stallard-Audrey DelGaudio, Dallas; fifth, Dominica Delayo-Margaret Mihalick, Wyoming Seminary; sixth, Carissa Benderavich-Khushi Syed, Holy Redeemer; seventh, Caitlyn Bestrycki-Christina Monroe, Holy Cross; and eighth, Sarah Aubrey-Leelah Farrell, Scranton Prep.

Hanumali, who reached the singles final against teammate Bella Peters, and Arp, a freshman who won several key matches to contribute to Abington Heights’ Lackawanna League championship, will team up in doubles.

The singles champions – Peters and Riverside’s Karissa Ghigiarelli – are ineligible for district doubles each year.

West Scranton’s Madison Maloney and Mia Butka, doubles finalists last year, are seeded second.

Wallenpaupack’s Erika Badner, fresh off of being the only unseeded players to reach the district singles semifinals, joins Rebecca Husson on the third-seeded team.

Gabrielle Chantiloupe-Camilla Sphabmixay give West Scranton two of the top four seeds.

Maia Philbin-Julia Bergman from Scranton are seeded fifth and Hanna Adonizio-Faith Bennett, the number-one Abington Heights doubles team throughout the regular season, are sixth.

Follow us on social media