Brinlea LaBarge, Penn Charter’s freshman number one, has quickly become an impact player in the Inter-Ac League. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption]

by Tom Utescher

The racquetwomen of Penn Charter locked up a third-place finish in the Inter-Ac League regular-season standings on October 19, winning all three singles flights and three of the four doubles bouts against visiting Germantown Academy. A victory at second doubles saved the GA Patriots from a sweep and the hands of their traditional rivals.

With the victory, the Quakers completed a 4-2 trip through the Inter-Ac schedule. Their two losses, which came against Episcopal Academy (defending and 2015 champion) and Baldwin School by 3-4 scores, each hinged on a third-set tiebreaker in a single match.

GA went 4-1 in its early non-league contests this season, but after opening league play with a win over Springside Chestnut Hill, the Patriots have found rough going in the Inter-Ac. Last week’s outcome at PC gave them a mark of 1-5.

Very solid at the singles spots, Penn Charter only dropped a total of five games in three matches last week. One of GA’s regular singles performers, sophomore Rachel Kliger, was out of action. The Patriots moved fellow 10th-grader Julia Stauber up out of the doubles ranks, but she was overmatched against Charter freshman Leila Sor, who won the third singles bout with a pair of 6-1 sets.

The athletes in the number one match had seen one another before on the club and USTA junior circuit. Here, Quakers ninth-grader Brinlea LaBarge overcame visiting sophomore Renee Repella, 6-0, 6-3. LaBarge’s sister Schuyler, a junior, went past GA senior number two Tesa Pribitkin, 6-0, 6-0.

GA’s second singles player, senior Tesa Pribitkin, is also the defending Inter-Ac League and Pa. Independent Schools champion in the pole vault. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption]

In pairs play, Quakers senior Paige Hodges joined up with junior Natalie Williams to take the number one bout, 6-4, 6-3, from Germantown senior Amanda Amorosi and junior Jules Buchholz. At second doubles, fortune finally smiled on GA, as senior Sydney Caplan and junior Talia Sciccitano topped PC 11th-graders Jennie Reisman and Olivia Brody-Bizar, 6-2, 6-4.

At fourth doubles junior Hunter Smith and sophomore Elizabeth Drebin of the host team took a 6-1, 6-3 decision from GA’s sophomore Sophies, Kallenbach and Asher.

Third doubles was the last match out on the courts. Quakers 10th-graders Meredith Bernstein and Chloe Master had pulled out a 7-5 win in the first set. In the second, GA juniors Kristin Haugen and Mikayla Fassler stayed close, extending the match as conditions became darker and chillier. The Patriots won the ninth game and were just one game back at 4-5, then Bernstein and Masters wrapped the match up in game 10, winning 6-4.