WPIAL girls tennis 2024: North Catholic wins first Class 2A championship in program history
-
North Catholic's Katie Hardy (right) celebrates a win with doubles partner Jessica Sinclair against Quaker Valley in the WPIAL Class 2A Girls Tennis Team Championships final Oct. 17, 2024, at Washington & Jefferson College's Janet L. Swanson Tennis Center. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
-
North Catholic's Delaney Kelley returns the ball against Quaker Valley in the WPIAL Class 2A Girls Tennis Team Championships final Oct. 17, 2024, at Washington & Jefferson College's Janet L. Swanson Tennis Center. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
-
North Catholic's Evelyn Marche hits the ball against Quaker Valley's Jay Olawaiye in the WPIAL Class 2A Girls Tennis Team Championships final Oct. 17, 2024, at Washington & Jefferson College's Janet L. Swanson Tennis Center. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
Eric Solverson struggled to put what he had seen into words.
North Catholic’s quest for the school’s first WPIAL tennis team championship of any kind fell on the shoulders of a freshman as everyone around watched.
That freshman was Evelyn Marche, the Trojanettes’ No. 3 Singles player.
The match against No. 2 Quaker Valley was tied 2-2, and Marche was deep in a three-set battle with senior Jay Olawaiye, a former No. 1 on her team and future collegiate track athlete, that lasted more than three-and-a-half hours.
Marche dominated the first set early on to go up 5-2, but she couldn’t hold the lead and lost 7-5. She then trailed 5-4 in the second set and had to fight off two match points.
She did, went on a run to win the second set 7-5, then dominated the final set 6-0 to win her match and the top-seeded Trojans their first district title Thursday evening, 3-2 over QV, at Washington & Jefferson College’s Janet Swanson Tennis Center.
“Just unbelievable how cool and calm she was,” Solverson said on the phone. “I couldn’t be more proud of her.”
“I just ran and screamed,” Marche said, describing the celebration; she doesn’t know who she hugged first and just remembers her teammates running to her.
It’s the first district championship for any North Catholic tennis team — the boys program has been around since the 1940s, Solverson said, and the girls off and on since 1973. NC is just the second Butler County program to win a WPIAL title after Knoch did so three of the previous four years.
North Catholic, Quaker Valley and third-place Hampton all qualified for the state tournament.
The Trojanettes host a first-round PIAA Class 2A match Tuesday, with a chance to compete in the quarterfinals and beyond at Hershey Racquet Club, in Hershey, after that.
“It was super exciting to win, especially for the seniors on my team,” Marche said.
Solverson was floored by the 5-foot-1 rookie’s composure under intense pressure. And the head-to-head match lasted longer than any other, resulting in every parent, fan and teammate turning their attention on Marche and Olawaiye for volley after volley.
Solverson said parents counted rallies of 30 and 32 strokes. He didn’t remember there being a double fault.
“It was so stressful,” he said.
Marche could’ve broken after coughing up the first set. She could’ve broken again when down to match point in the second set.
“I was scared, I was worried, I was nervous, all of it,” she said of her thoughts after the first set.
But neither time she did. She tried to tell herself before each point the score was 0-0, and when down in the second set she tried to make Olawaiye make the mistake.
Marche doesn’t remember being in another match like it — down in the second set with similar stakes.
“It gives me confidence,” she said.
North Catholic lost the other singles matches, although Solverson said No. 2 Delaney Kelley played her match tighter (6-1, 6-4 loss to Avery Allan) than three weeks before when she lost 6-0, 6-0. Brea Kelley lost Singles 1 6-1, 6-1.
The Trojanettes won the doubles matches as expected — Kate Hardy and Jessica Sinclair in Doubles 1 and Samantha Falcon and Marcaria Stall in Doubles 2 — but neither of them was particularly easy.
The WPIAL crown was the goal the team set in the preseason. NC wanted to win gold and qualify for states for the first time. Now, though, they’re thinking bigger.
“We’ll get a banner in the gym,” Solverson said. “There’s a big bell the girls get to ring during an assembly.
“We have such good depth that nobody is going to roll through us, and the new attitude is, ‘Why not us?’”
