NEPA Sports Nation

Today in NEPA Sports Nation, 9/28

The first District 2 championship of the 2021-22 school year is scheduled to be decided Tuesday with the Girls Team Golf Championships set to get underway at Elkview Country Club at 9 a.m.

The top three scores from each team will be used to determine champions in Class 3A and 2A.

Scranton Prep (3A) and Elk Lake (2A) are the defending champions.

Rain could be factor during the early stages of the round.

In addition to the district golf team championships, there are girls tennis and boys and girls cross country meets scheduled that could go a long way toward determining Lackawanna League titles.

The Abington Heights Middle School in Newton Township will be the center of activity in Lackawanna League sports.

That is the site of the meeting between the league’s last two unbeaten girls tennis teams at 4 p.m. and where the most important cluster meet of the league season is set for 4:45 p.m.

Scranton Prep, the top-ranked Small School in the Riverfront Sports Super Six Girls Tennis Power Rankings, is 10-0 going into its match at Abington Heights, which is 11-0 and ranked first among Big Schools. Scranton Prep is the defending league champion and both teams are defending District 2 champions.

Abington Heights has just two matches left against non-contenders after the Scranton Prep match. Scranton Prep still has to face third-place Riverside.

Tuesday is the biggest day of the season for Lackawanna League cross country because it is the day when the most results are determined. Each day of the season, two “clusters” of three teams get together and run against each other for a total of nine competitions within each race. Tuesday is the day teams are scored against the schools in their own cluster as well, so instead of 9 boys meets and 9 girls meets being scored at each site, there will be 15 boys and 15 girls meets.

That means the cluster of Abington Heights, North Pocono and Valley View, which runs together each week, will be competing against each other instead of just adding to its combined 48-6 boys and girls record against outside competition.

North Pocono and Abington Heights are 9-0 and two the teams sharing the Lackawanna League boys lead. North Pocono is the top-ranked team and Abington Heights is right behind in second, after earlier holding No. 1, in the boys portion of the Century Dental Associations Cross Country Power Rankings of District 2 teams.

On the girls side, second-ranked Abington Heights is alone in first place in the Lackawanna League at 9-0, but seventh-ranked Valley View (8-1) and 10th-ranked North Pocono (7-2) are among the top pursuers.

Another key meet is at Montrose where the competitions include No. 9 Scranton Prep and No. 4 Montrose squaring off in a race between 8-1 girls teams.

Division champions meet when Riverside plays at Scranton Prep in a Lackawanna League Class 2A golf semifinal.

Winning teams meet in two of the Wyoming Valley Conference boys soccer games.

Crestwood (5-1 in the division, 7-2) is at Hazleton Area (3-1, 4-1) in a Division 1 game between the second- and third-place teams.

Second-place Holy Redeemer (5-1, 6-3) is at Lake-Lehman (3-2, 4-5) in a game between two of the four teams that have winning records within Division 2.

Two of the top four teams in WVC Division 2 field hockey also play.

Pittston Area (3-2, 4-4) is at second-place Abington Heights (2-0-1, 2-3-1).

Among the other events on the schedule are a dozen girls soccer games and five girls volleyball matches.

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