Montrose\u2019s Cara Evans and Scranton Prep\u2019s doubles combination of Lily Lengyel and Emma Cuck proved that the best tennis in the state for Class 2A is in the Lackawanna League and District 2.<\/p>\n
Evans, a junior, completed an undefeated 2025 season and won the gold medal by beating Belle Vernon senior Gabriella Dusi, the District 7 champion, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, in the PIAA Class 2A Singles Championship Tournament on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt was so great, because I had to work for it through a very competitive three sets,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThis is everything that I have worked for since I started playing at 4 years old. Everything led up to this moment. The girl I played, Gabriella, was so respectful and such a talented player, and she forced me to play my absolute best.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the second set, I felt myself getting tired, but I had to give it my all in that third set. I just kept reliving all the practices, all the help my dad gave me. I wanted it so bad. I wanted to be greedy and win every point, and I gave 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Classics\u2019 team added state gold to the team championship they helped win last weekend. Lengyel and Cuck defeated Winchester Thurston\u2019s Veronica Zinski-Marann Buckanovich, the District 7 champion, 6-0, 6-1, to make it a clean sweep of all titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means the world to me,\u201d said Cuck, a senior who played at No. 2 singles for the Classics this season. \u201cI never thought I could do anything like this, and to get two golds in one year is pretty crazy.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s also pretty cool to end my senior year with a win.\u201d<\/p>\n
By winning the gold, Evans continued a four-year run for singles players from District 2 to win the title. Wyoming Seminary\u2019s Ilana Rosenthal won three consecutive championships in 2022, 2023, and 2024.<\/p>\n
She is the second player representing the Lackawanna League to win a state championship in singles tennis. Riverside\u2019s Karissa Ghigiarelli won the title in 2019.<\/p>\n
Crestwood\u2019s Christine Kansky (2001 and 2003) and Wyoming Seminary\u2019s Natalie Joanlanne (2013) are the other Class 2A singles state champions from District 2.<\/p>\n
The team of Lengyel and Cuck is the third from Scranton Prep to win a doubles title. Sheila Rao and Rachel Pugliese won in 1998, and Liz Karam and Abby Pugliese won in 2004.<\/p>\n
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After starting the tournament Friday afternoon with a win over Quaker Valley sophomore Avery Allan, 6-1, 6-0, Evans fell behind Lower Moreland freshman Khaya Lukov, the District 1 champion, 3-0. She recovered and powered her way to a 6-3, 6-3 win Friday night in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
On Saturday morning, Evans defeated Biglerville\u2019s Paytyn Plank, the District 3 champion, 6-1, 6-0 to reach the state final.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means so much to me,\u201d said Evans, who is coached by her mom, Teri, and improved to 24-0 this season. \u201cI can\u2019t thank my family and my dad (Christopher) enough for all they have done for me. My dad is the best out there. I messaged Ilana (Rosenthal) this past week, asking what to expect and how to prepare, and she gave me great advice that I applied and executed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lengyel and Cuck had already earned gold medals by leading the Classics to their second Class 2A team title in three seasons.<\/p>\n
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The duo opened with a win over North Catholic\u2019s team of Evelyn Marche and Macaria Stall, the runner-up team from District 7, in a strong performance, 6-1, 6-0, on Friday afternoon. The Classics team then defeated Lower Moreland\u2019s team of Natalie Chania and Abigail Yanovitsky, 6-0, 6-3.<\/p>\n
On Saturday morning, Lengyel and Cuck continued to dominate and defeated Moravian Academy\u2019s team of Laura Li and Vicky Guo, the District 11 champion, 6-1, 6-3, in the semifinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really complemented each other as a team,\u201d Cuck said. \u201cLily is such a great doubles player, and she is a smart player and always has a good strategy. She really helped me convert into a doubles player, and we were able to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montrose\u2019s Cara Evans and Scranton Prep\u2019s doubles combination of Lily Lengyel and Emma Cuck proved that the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[16199,16204,16200,16202,16205,16203,16201,16198,178,180,179,10158,16206],"class_list":["post-24397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-cara-evans","tag-cuck","tag-emma-cuck","tag-evans","tag-gabriella-dusi","tag-ilana-rosenthal","tag-lackawanna-league","tag-lily-lengyel","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-team-championship","tag-wyoming-seminary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}