Beginner's luck? Hardly. Julia Casselbury may have been competing in the PIAA girls' tennis tournament for the first time this weekend, but the cliché doesn't quite apply.
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The Lancaster Country Day sophomore, who's all of 15, is a crafty veteran of USTA Junior-level tennis. As such, she came to Hershey Racquet Club on Friday, calmly assessed the Class AA field, and by Saturday she'd conquered the whole darned thing.
"I was kind of hoping that this was how things would turn out," Casselbury said with a big grin after she beat Tanya Timko 6-4, 7-5 for the crown. "She played really well. I really had to bring my A game to come out ahead of her."
Timko, a junior from Chartiers Houston, was the top seed out of vaunted District Seven. She lived up to her billing as a tough cookie, and provided Casselbury with the first real challenge she'd faced on the weekend.
Case in point: In the first game against Timko, Casselbury lost four games. She'd lost a total of four games in the three entire matches she'd played in the tournament up to that point.
"I knew the whole match I was just making too many errors," Casselbury said. "And I had to be smarter about what I was doing with my shots. I knew I had to keep the ball in longer, and I think I was being too aggressive at times. It led to too many mistakes. She was playing well, and I had to refocus."
By the end of the second set, things got a little too close for comfort. Timko had closed to within 6-5. For her part, Casselbury went into overdrive. Serving the final game, she didn't allow Timko a single point and closed out the match.
"I'd like to dedicate this win to my grandfather," Casselbury said. "He's in the hospital. He really, really wanted to come today, but he's about to have a really big surgery. So I wanted to win for him."
Casselbury opened play Saturday with what appeared to be a tough draw in the semifinal round. Her opponent was Lower Moreland's Madison Cohen, the top seed from perennially tough District One. Cohen, by the by, was also the defending Class AA champion.
The two mixed it up well, fighting tooth-and-nail for point after point. There were long volleys and solid play on the baseline and at the net. But, point after point, Casselbury was always one step ahead.
Cohen won the third game of the first set, and nothing else. Casselbury cruised into the final 6-1, 6-0.
Beyond Casselbury, though, Lancaster County claimed a pair of Class AAA medals Saturday as well. Lancaster Christian senior Leah Rutt, who plays for McCaskey under a co-op agreement, finished fourth in singles, and the Manheim Township duo of Caroline Barry and Lauren Stauffer finished fourth in doubles.
Rutt lost her semifinal match 6-1, 6-1 to eventual champion Joelle Kissell of Greater Latrobe before dropping her consolation match 6-2, 7-5 to Plum's Ronit Yorovsky.
"I was excited to get this far," Rutt said. "This was the first time I've made it to this point. To be at this round of the tournament was awesome. … The score [of the semifinal] didn't reflect the games we had, though. We both fought our hearts out, but she just ended up with one more point in every game."
In the doubles tournament, Stauffer and Barry opened the day with a game effort against eventual champs Julie Stroyne and Caroline Nixon of Peters Township. They won a tight first set 7-5 before dropping the second and third 6-2 and 6-1.
"Both of our opponents were extremely aggressive today in their approaches," Stauffer said. "Caroline and I are both baseline players, and both teams we played had one really strong net person. And when that happens, when they take over the net, it's hard to get away from that situation and create winners."
The Manheim Township duo fell to Wissahickon's Rachel Fein and Katie Kennedy 6-1, 6-4 in the consolation match.
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