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Of the county's four entries in state play at Hershey Racquet Club on Friday, three — Julia Casselbury, Leah Rutt and the doubles team of Caroline Barry and Lauren Stauffer — survived to play another day.
"I thought I did everything I wanted to do today," said Rutt, a Lancaster Christian senior who plays under a co-op agreement with McCaskey.
Rutt, the top seed out of District Three, began with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Wissahickon freshman Michelle Satterfield before dispatching Corinne Jones, a State College senior, 6-2, 6-0.
This is the farthest Rutt has advanced in PIAA play. She'll get her Class AAA semifinal shot at 11 this morning when she meets a familiar face, Joelle Kissell of Greater Latrobe, the second seed out of high-powered District Seven.
"I'm excited," Rutt said. "She plays national and state tournaments with me, so we've seen each other play — though we haven't played each other in a long time. It'll be a really good match."
Meanwhile, in Class AA singles, Casselbury, a Lancaster Country Day sophomore, opened play with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Muncy senior Breanne Phillips. She then dismantled Sewickley Academy's Logan Antill 6-2, 6-1 in the quarters. Casselbury will face Lower Moreland sophomore Madison Cohen —the top seed out of always-tough District One — at 9 this morning.
Also Friday, Manheim Township's Barry and Stauffer secured a return trip to the Class AAA doubles semifinal round by virtue of a 6-1, 6-3 win over Hollidaysburg's Natalie Khalouf and Meg Bettwy. They'd opened play with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Pennsbury's Tara Krauss and Katie Reilly.
"We're really excited to be back," said Barry, a junior. "We think we'll do well. Today we tried to stay aggressive, and I think that worked well for us. We tried to just be as efficient as we could with the time we had."
Barry and Stauffer, a sophomore, finished third in last year's tournament. They'll play District Seven second seeds Julie Stroyne and Caroline Nixon of Peters Township at 11 this morning.
Narrowly missing the cut Friday in Class AAA doubles was the Hempfield team of Chelsie Yacks and Mackenzie Smith. They opened play with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Rachel Hoffman and Catherine Noack of Bethlehem Liberty before dropping a 6-4, 6-4 heartbreaker to Pine Richland's Olivia Heim and Taylor Perz in the quarters.
