HERSHEY — If things went according to plan, there was a good chance Lancaster Country Day would win a third straight title.
The plan went awry, but the end result was the same as the Cougars defeated Conrad Weiser 3-1 in the District Three Class 2A boys team tennis final Wednesday at Hershey Racquet Club.
In the Class 3A final, Manheim Township fell 3-1 to defending champion Dallastown.
The Cougars’ plan was to have Michael Georgelis, who won the district 2A singles title Saturday, do what he’s done all year and get a win at No. 1 singles. But Georgelis was unable to go to school with a stomach bug and wasn’t eligible play.
That left LCD coach Chris Wilson with a decision of either defaulting the No. 1 singles match or moving everybody up.
“That wasn’t going to be good matchups,” said Wilson about moving players around. “You’re not going to do that this time of the year.
“We just needed to come out and take care of every court. ... The boys played for each other and they played for Michael.”
First, Carson Weigle took care of business, winning pretty handily at No. 2 singles, 6-3, 6-1. Carter Burkholder and Henry Wilcomes, though a longer match time-wise, then gained a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 2 doubles.
LCD (16-1) needed just one more win, and the No. 1 doubles team of Andrew Yanero and Ivan Bene eventually persevered by a 6-4, 6-3 score.
“It was kind of surprising; I saw everyone coming over,” said Yanero of the interest their match was drawing. “I didn’t realize that was the match.”
“Absolutely, knowing you’re going in with a loss already on the board, it adds pressure,” said Bene. “But we’ve been in these moments before, so it just comes down to execution.”
The No. 3 singles match, which Conrad Weiser (16-2) led after taking the first set, was then halted.
Both teams already had qualified for the PIAA Team Tournament, which begins Tuesday, sites and times to be determined.
In Class 3A, the fourth-seeded Blue Streaks were coming off the high of upsetting top-ranked Hempfield in Monday’s semifinals, but they couldn’t maintain the momentum against Dallastown, which won its third straight title.
“We were third place in (Lancaster-Lebanon League) Section One and we just got hot at the right time,” said Township coach Doug Pennington. “There were a lot of matches we lost that we were really in, and we just couldn’t get it. But they just kept trying and they didn’t quit.”
The third-seeded Wildcats (18-3) took control of four of the five matches, with Hayden Koons getting a quick 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles and Jacob Horn putting Township (12-3) in a 2-0 hole with a 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 2.
But the remaining matches tightened up, and brothers Chris and Nate Hager got Township on the board with a 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 1 doubles.
“Obviously, my brother and I played really well together,” Chris Hager said. “We worked really hard to get to this final position. Second place; we’ll take it.”
Dallastown won the first set in both No. 3 singles and No. 1 doubles. But Township’s Canyon Curry and the doubles team of Jack Reynolds and Jake Palandjian each held 5-4 leads in the second set. However, the Wildcats’ Ian Opitz and Holden Depew rallied for a 7-6 (7-4) win in doubles to end the match.
“I thought it would be 3-2 either way,” said Pennington, whose team defeated Dallastown 3-2 in their first match of the season. “We stopped at 3-1, and you don’t know what that other match would have been.”
The Streaks also will begin 3A action in the PIAA Tournament on Tuesday, as will Hempfield (16-2) and second-seeded Cedar Crest (13-5), which played in the third-place match Wednesday at Hempfield recCenter.
Just like their epic regular-season match on April 15, a 4-3 Hempfield win, the Knights outlasted the Falcons, this time 3-2.
The match came down to No. 1 singles in a rematch of Saturday’s district 3 singles final. Unlike Saturday, when Hempfield’s Cooper Lehman defeated Viseth Meng 6-1, 6-0, Lehman struggled to get past Meng 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
The unseeded Meng had upset second-seeded Koons in Saturday’s singles semifinals.
Also winning for Hempfield were Sam Keener, who didn’t lose a game at No. 3 singles; and the No. 2 doubles team of Jack Magalski and Ryan Malesic, who won 6-2, 6-4.
Cedar Crest’s Joe Shkreli got by Andre Hurst 7-6, 6-1 at No. 2 singles, and Isaac Wolfe and Nate Meng won 6-3, 6-4 over Luke Over and Tristan Coyne at No. 1 doubles.
