Several athletes from Catholic high schools will be competing in the Delaware high school state girls tennis championships, which get going on Saturday and are scheduled to conclude on May 22.
There are five events: first, second and third singles, and first and second doubles. The Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association seeds the top eight for each event. Some players receive byes into the second round depending on the number of entrants into each championship.
In girls first singles, Samantha Manjon of St. Thomas More is seeded sixth. She has a first-round bye and will take on the winner of Shannon Austin of Tatnall vs. Jane Krukiel of Ursuline. Other Catholic school participants are Jessica Pei of Archmere, Samantha Gerhart of St. Mark’s and Sonia Srikanth of Padua. Pei opens on Saturday vs. Janice Xie or Newark. Gerhart will play Zoe Rawheiser of Mount Pleasant, and Srikanth takes on Sarah Haritos of Concord. The first two rounds will be played at Sanford School on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.
Cassidy Markel of Ursuline is seeded fourth, and Ally Windham of St. Thomas More is eighth in second singles. Markel has a bye and gets either Mercedes Nguyen of Concord or Alexandra Brambani of Appoquinimink. Windham opens with Amanda Yeung of A.I. duPont. Also participating in second singles is Olivia Moore of St. Mark’s, who will face Rachel Mills of Delmarva Christian; Magdalena Mendez of Archmere, who gets Erika Richards of Tatnall; and Gwen Truman of Padua, who has Nikhila Injukuri of Newark Charter. The first two rounds will be at Dickinson High School beginning at 9 a.m.
At third singles, Natalie Rider of St. Thomas More is seeded sixth; she has a first-round bye and will play the winner of Jane Penn of Tatnall vs. Ilza Arefyeva of Caesar Rodney. Eighth-seeded Alyssa Barnak of Padua also has a bye and faces either Maddie Balick of Wilmington Friends or Dea Harjianto or Middletown. Sophia Welch of Archmere plays Lena Farrell of Sanford, and Alexus Baxter of St. Mark’s gets Alex VanderValk of Delmarva Christian. Ursuline’s Evelyn Parsonage opens with Myra Fravel of Dickinson. The first two rounds will be played at Appoquinimink High School starting at 9 a.m.
In first doubles, the third seed is Chloe Mantakounis and Alexandra Cuoco of Archmere. They have a bye and will meet Aesha Kothari and Ruhi Khan of Newark Charter or Emily Principe and Sanai Corbin of A.I. duPont. Jessica Zhang and Tiffany Dong of St. Thomas More will meet the top seed, Ella Shepherd and Ava Steinberger of Tower Hill, in the second round. Hanna Richman and Sophia Summerill of Ursuline take on Dayna Otalor and Brooke Burks of Mount Pleasant in the first round, and Kathryn Jennings and Sarah Jennings of Padua meet Chloe Nield and Zoe Chermak of Brandywine, also in the first round.
Padua’s Rebecca Baker and Jasmine Middaugh are seeded sixth in second doubles. They get the winner of Hope Kline and Hannah Palmer of Delmarva Christian vs. Nithya Gadde and Brooke Hollander of Sanford in the second round. Heather Niemoeller and Sarah Flenner of Archmere take on Tanya Rawal and Deeksha Reddy of Newark Charter, and Claire Binkley and Karina Vattasseril of Ursuline open with Meghan Hale and Ga Chung of Concord. Both doubles competitions will hold their first two rounds on Saturday at 9 a.m. at St. Andrew’s School.
The quarterfinals for all events will be Monday at 3:30 p.m. All singles competition will be at St. Andrew’s, while first doubles is at Middletown and second doubles at Appoquinimink. The semifinals are Tuesday at St. Andrew’s at 2:30 p.m., and the finals are also at St. Andrew’s on Wednesday beginning at 1:30 p.m.
