| Friday, Oct. 21, 2016, TRIB-LIVE
After claiming the WPIAL Class AAA doubles titles in 2014 and ’15 with Laurel Shymansky, now at Duquesne, Fox Chapel junior Amanda Nord set her sights on a three-peat with a new partner.
On Friday, she teamed with freshman Charlotte James to post a 6-2, 6-4 win over North Allegheny’s Tina Li and Ashley Huang at the Alpha Tennis Center in Harmar.
“It was different not playing with Laurel this time around,” Nord said. “But we worked well together throughout the tournament. We knew we would have to stay focused against Tina and Ashley. We felt we were in control of the match early on.”
James admitted to being apprehensive.
“It was my first WPIAL championship match, and I was a little nervous for the first couple of games, but Amanda really helped me out,” she said.
Fox Chapel coach Alex Slezak felt confident, especially after the pair lost just three games combined in the first three rounds.
“They played very well,” he said. “We like to call the long points and the deuce points the war endurance zone points, and we prevailed in that aspect. They were calm and collected.”