The new tennis coaches and team captains for Germantown Academy are (from left) Assistant Coach Lori Freed, seniors Amanda Amarosi, Tesa Pribitkin, and Sydney Caplan, and Head Coach Lora Ball. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

A non-league tennis tilt last Thursday provided good competition for both host Germantown Academy of the Inter-Ac and Germantown Friends of the Friends Schools League, with the home team finally prevailing, 4-3.

The last contest left out on the court decided the outcome, as senior Amanda Amarosi and junior Kristin Haugen of the GA Patriots wrested a 6-2, 7-5 victory at second doubles from seniors Mavis UChen and Eliza Cohen of the visiting Tigers. In other bouts that had already concluded, the first singles, first doubles, and fourth doubles matches had gone into the win column for GA, while GFS prevailed at second and third singles and at third doubles.

The lower doubles flights finished up fairly quickly. A pair of Patriot sophomores who are each named Sophie (Kallenbach and Asher) took a 6-3, 6-4 decision from GFS sophomore Toby Shore and Emily Kastenberg at fourth doubles, and in the third position two strong Tigers freshmen, Malani Li and Marlie Golden, secured both sets at 6-1 as they overcame GA sophomore Julia Stauber and junior Mikayla Fassler.

At first singles, the sophomore square-off between the hosts’ Renee Repella and the Tigers’ Helen Ruger ended prematurely when Ruger was forced to withdraw due to injury. The visitors would capture the other two singles matches, though, with senior number two Sophie Bunson besting Patriots sophomore Rachel Kliger, 6-2, 6-2, while GFS 10th-grader Lindsey Golden won her third singles bout against GA senior Tesa Pribitkin, 6-3, 6-2. Pribitkin is actually more comfortable with a pole vault shaft in her hands than a tennis racquet; she was the Inter-Ac champion and the Pa. Independent Schools champion in that event last spring.

Another Patriots senior, Sydney Caplan, joined forces with junior Talia Sciccitano at first doubles. Getting the better of the Tigers’ 10th-grade tandem of Caroline Kavanagh and Alice Daeschler, 6-4, 6-3, the GA duo leveled the team score at 3-3, setting the stage for the second doubles players to decide the outcome.

Caplan, Pribitkin, and Amarosi are the GA tri-captains this fall under new head coach Lora Ball and assistant coach Lori Freed. Thursday’s outcome raised the Patriots’ overall record to 3-1, while the Tigers went to 3-2.

Although neither GA nor GFS had played any league matches, each squad had faced at least one opponent from the other team’s league. The Patriots suffered their lone loss against 2014 Friends Schools League runner-up Shipley School (2-3), while Germantown Friends, the defending FSL champion, had faced three Inter-Ac teams before GA, topping Springside Chestnut Hill (4-2 in a six-match contest) and Agnes Irwin (3-2), and losing to Baldwin School (1-4).