Alco, Mtn. Ridge doubles teams fall in state semifinals

May 27—COLUMBIA — The Allegany boys doubles and Mountain Ridge girls doubles teams advanced to the state semifinals, falling at that stage at the Maryland Class 1A tournament at Wilde Lake Tennis Center in Columbia on Thursday.

Chazz Imes and Aidan Paulman continued their undefeated season with an opening-round win over Danny Mears and Noah Kusack of McDonough, 7-5, 6-3, in the quarterfinals before falling to top-seeded Andrew Lee and Walker Milstead of Patterson Mill, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals.

The Camper duo defeated Aaron Brey and Preston VanSchaik of Colonel Richardson via forfeit to earn third place in the state. Imes and Paulman finished the season with a 17-1 record.

On the girls side, Mountain Ridge's Eliza Duncan and Kendall Kirkwood (13-3) toppled Mackenzie Fox and Abbie Kemp (St. Michaels), 7-5, 6-1, before losing to No. 1 seeds Imona Groce and Fiona Williamson from Western Tech, 6-3, 6-4, in the Final Four.

The Mountain Ridge tandem will return to compete for third place at the state tournament on Saturday.

"I couldn't be prouder of the girls, the improvement they made throughout the season was amazing," Miners head coach Rob Duncan said, "and they competed well today and gave themselves a chance to win."

Allegany, the West Region champions, sent a pair of singles performers to Columbia in Jonathan Nelson (16-2) and Sofiia Kucher (14-4), competing in boys and girls doubles, respectively, but the Campers were eliminated in the first round.

Nelson fell to Jason Haley of McDonough, 6-4, 6-2, and Kucher lost to second-seeded Marli McDorman of Pocomoke, 6-0, 6-1.

"I'm so proud of the work and effort these players have put in all year." Allegany girls coach Steve Lowery said. "It's a tremendous accomplishment for these players to represent Allegany High School in three separate divisions of the state tournament.

"To get the opportunity to play at this venue, compete at the highest level in this tournament, and to have great experiences and memories to take with you when your run ends, is what this event is about, and our players did that today."

In addition to Duncan and Kirkwood, Mountain Ridge also sent Caydence Pennington and Will Haberlein to states in mixed doubles, but the duo dropped a tight contest to Natasha Kravchenko and Maxwell Suchin of Pikesville, 4-6, 6-2, 10-3.

In Nelson's boys singles match, Nelson and Haley exchanged groundstrokes throughout the match, each trying to establish control. The first set went back and forth with each player seemingly unable to gain a clear advantage until Haley capitalized on his 5-4 advantage to close out the first set 6-4.

Late in the second set, it was Haley again gaining the upper hand with consistent play to close out the final few games of the second set for the victory.

On the girls side, McDorman was on her game striking forehands and backhands with precision and accuracy. Kucher, who has been Allegany's most consistent girls player, engaged in several long rallies and was competitive throughout the match, but the ability of McDorman to move the ball around the court with precision and pace proved to be too much.

Imes and Paulman got off to a slow start down 5-2 in the first set of their opening match before finding their rhythm and dominating the rest of the match with aggressive net play to go on to win.

In the duo's semifinal match, both Imes/Paulman and Lee/Walker played high-quality tennis exchanging big serves, overheads and aggressive net play. Emotions were high as each team let out shouts of encouragement throughout the match, but it was Patterson Mill ending Imes/Paulman's undefeated season and moving on to compete in the state final.

In girls doubles play, Kirkwood and Duncan found themselves down 5-2 to Fox and Kemp in the first set, as they battled some early nerves.

The Mountain Ridge girls settled down, found their stroke, and rattled off five straight games to take the first set 7-5. Kirkwood and Duncan kept it rolling in the second set, winning 6-1 to take the match and advance to the state semifinals.

In the Final Four against the No. 1 seeds, again Kirkwood and Duncan fell behind, this time 3-0. They again came on late in first set, but it wasn't enough, as they dropped the opening set 6-3.

The second set found the team from Western Tech racing ahead to a 5-2 lead. Duncan and Kirkwood rallied to close to 5-4 but lost the next game and match 6-4.

The Miners' mixed doubles team of Pennington and Haberlein came out strong and took the first set 6-4 in a competitive back-and-forth set.

The team from Pikesville rallied in the second set, playing much more consistently, to win the second set 6-2 to even the match at a set apiece.

In the third set tiebreaker, Pennington and Haberlein just couldn't find the big shot when needed and dropped the tiebreaker.

"What a great match these two played, taking the first set with some great shotmaking," coach Duncan said. "It wasn't to be in second set, but they saw a different level of tennis today and really raised their level of play, much the same as Kendall and Eliza did in the girls doubles. Proud of all four. Great effort."