Expand<\/a><\/p>\nWILKES-BARRE\u2013 An established champion fortified her place in tennis history, while a couple of new stars also showed the bright future.<\/p>\n
At the District 2 Singles Championships, Montrose senior Cara Evans completed her dominant run to a second straight Class 2A gold medal.<\/p>\n
In Class 3A, Abington Heights freshman Addie Stark captured the title on a sunny afternoon at Kirby Park.<\/p>\n
In order to defend her PIAA championship, Evans first needed to win the District 2 title. She advanced to the final, beating Dallas\u2019 Carlin Finn, 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinal.<\/p>\n
MMI Prep freshman Avery Orozco battled Scranton Prep senior Lily Lengyel, the No. 2 seed, in the other semifinal.<\/p>\n
Orozco earned a 6-3, 6-3 win to set up the match against the champion.<\/p>\n
Not even the blasting of the Styx anthem \u201cRenegade\u201d through the nearby Ralston Field speakers for Wilkes football practice could pierce Evans\u2019 focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the music started playing, I honestly just started dancing,\u201d Evans said. \u201cI just figured I\u2019ll embrace it. I\u2019ll embrace the conditions, the cold or the heat, it wasn\u2019t going to matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
While also battling a cold, the powerful right hander, fired shots that whistled over the net and slammed inside the lines. Evans defeated the upstart Orozco, 6-0, 6-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt really good, because coming into the season, I knew about Avery and played her a couple of times,\u201d Evans said. \u201c(Thursday), I felt more knowledgeable about her game when my sister Anna played her. I knew that I had to be at my very best tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the match, Evans embraced Orozco and whispered words of encouragement. She gave similar advice to what Wyoming Seminary Ilana Rosenthal, a three-time state champion, offered her two seasons ago after beating Evans in the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really grateful for everything that I did and how I played,\u201d Orozco said. \u201cI learned a lot. I really got a good experience out of this. It was something new and I am happy with how did in these tough matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the final, I still played very good tennis. We both did. I am just really proud of everything that happened this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Class 3A, the championship match featured a pair of Abington Heights players who led the Lady Comets to the Lackawanna League and District 2 Class 3A Championships.<\/p>\n
Stark, who earned the No. 1 place in Abington Heights\u2019 lineup by defeating Arp in a practice challenge match, rolled to the final with a 6-0, 6-0 wins over Coral Kelly in the semifinal.<\/p>\n
Arp reached the title match, beating North Pocono\u2019s Anna Clementoni, 6-1, 6-1.<\/p>\n
Despite being teammates, Stark and Arp were fiercely competitive, but respectful, congratulating each other for good winning shots.<\/p>\n
Stark won the key points and captured the gold, 7-5, 6-4.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of odd, because Kate is my close friend and teammate,\u201d Stark said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of weird a little bit. It was a good match and it was fun playing her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like all of my hard work, you know I\u2019ve been playing for a couple of years now, we have been working toward this. It\u2019s really great.\u201d<\/p>\n
While never satisfied with defeat, Arp was gracious and happy with the way she played in the two-day competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really grateful to reach the final,\u201d Arp said. \u201cShe played amazing and a real fighter. I just wanted to win a couple of games, because I lost 6-0, 6-1 in our challenge match. I wanted to put up a fight. She just played great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abington Heights\u2019 Addie Stark. (JOBY FAWCETT \/ STAFF PHOTO) Abington Heights\u2019 Kate Arp, left, and Addie Stark. (JOBY…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-303410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303410","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=303410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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