Why North Catholic girls tennis believes time is now to make run at WPIAL, PIAA medals
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Sophomore Samantha Falcon practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices her swing during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Sophomore Samantha Falcon practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices her swing during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Sophomore Samantha Falcon practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Junior Brea Kelley practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Junior Brea Kelley practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Sophomore Samantha Falcon practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Junior Brea Kelley practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Junior Brea Kelley practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Sophomore Samantha Falcon practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Sophomore Samantha Falcon practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Junior Brea Kelley practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Junior Brea Kelley practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Senior Katie Hardy practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Sophomore Samantha Falcon practices during North Catholic High School girls tennis practice at Cranberry Township Community Park on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Eric Solverson didn’t mince words.
The North Catholic girls tennis coach thinks he has a roster capable of competing deep into the WPIAL and PIAA postseason.
“We’ve never had five girls like this before,” he said a few days before the start of the 2024 PIAA fall sports calendar that kicked off with practices Monday.
Solverson has been in charge of the Trojanettes program since its inception in 2015. He’s overseen a fledgling program that has grown into a roster with 27 girls expected to try out this season. Three girls — senior Katie Hardy and sophomores Brea Kelley and Samantha Falcon — either made postseason runs in 2023 or played valuable matches and will now be counted on to take big steps. And there is a crop of freshmen Solverson is eager to see in a varsity setting.
He thinks several girls will play collegiately one day. They think they’ll compete for titles this year and beyond.
"Absolutely,” Kelley said when asked if this roster is capable of winning its first WPIAL title. “I think it’s really going to take teamwork, hard work, just building each other up and just being able to fight back.”
Only one Butler County team has won a WPIAL Girls Tennis Team Championship — Knoch did it three times in the last four years in Class 2A. The Knights are expected to undergo a rebuild under first-year coach Lexi Chappel, a Butler High graduate.
North Catholic is in position to make it two Butler County teams to claim a conference title; the WPIAL postseason begins Sept. 11 with sectional play and continues with the conference tournaments starting Sept. 18. That would also mean another milestone: the program’s first appearance in the PIAA Girls Tennis Team Championships.
“I think we have some amazing potential,” Hardy said. “I hope our team makes it to Hershey.”
There is some recent precedent.
Hardy and Kelley are reigning PIAA Class 2A Girls Tennis Doubles Championships silver medalists. They came in third in the WPIAL doubles tournament, then made a surprising run to the state championship before falling to a pair from Lower Moreland.
“It took until now to come to terms with it,” said Hardy, still in a bit of disbelief about the medal she won.
“I just took that I made it to the state finals, I got second place. I want that for my team.”
The two may pair up again for doubles this season, but they’re also in the mix of what should be a heated battle for starting singles spots. Samantha Falcon was the team’s No. 2 a season ago and is just a sophomore.
Those three will be pushed by other returning players as well as newcomers. Delaney Kelley, Brea’s sister, is one of the highlights of what Solverson believes to be a loaded freshmen class. It also includes Mars-area freshman Evelyn Marche, who Solverson said was ranked Top 20 in the state in her age group.
“It’s a lot of motivation,” Hardy said of the incoming talent. “I wanna lead them, I wanna make a good impact on them. But it keeps the fire under me to keep working hard.”
Brea Kelley wants to be the team’s No. 1 this year and lead them to states, but “I just wanna show (the freshman ) how I was taken under someone’s wing last year and show everyone how great this team,” she said.
Kelley, who grew up playing soccer, basketball, did swimming and diving and didn’t get into tennis full-time until she was 12, has worked on her forehand during the offseason. Hardy, herself a multisport athlete who “tried every single sport physically imaginable” and also plays on the North Catholic lacrosse team, began playing tennis in seventh grade at Aquinas Academy and “fell in love” with it because of the team aspect.
Solverson has “built a tough schedule” with bigger schools to ready his team for the postseason. To add an additional level of difficulty, NC found out a week before the preseason began its home courts would be demolished for renovations at the end of August. The team will practice and compete now at a handful of different courts, with most or all home competitions on Butler Country Club’s clay courts.
“It’s throwing a wrinkle, a little stress, to have to reschedule,” he said.
But it’s all just one more test for a program that had five players try out Solverson’s first year and has grown five-fold since then. Now they’re trying to compete for titles.
“It was honestly amazing to see it grow from,” what it was my freshman year, Hardy said. “Basically you could come into the team (even if) you hadn’t picked up a racket (before).”
“My freshman year, we were closer, but every year I feel like our team gets closer and closer."
North Catholic begins the regular season Aug. 19 at Pine-Richland.
