Penn clinched a spot in the Boys Tennis State Finals by winning the Homestead Semi-state with a tight 3-2 victory against the host Spartans on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. Penn’s victory avenged a 4-1 loss in the regular-season to Homestead.
A Photo Gallery is posted below.
The Kingsmen went into the tie looking to snap Penn’s 11-year Boys Tennis State drought in Coach Eric Bowers last season as Head Coach, and they did just that with incredible efforts from No. 3 Singles Quinn Lippert, No. 1 Doubles Josh Weaver/Noah Sytsma and No. 2 Doubles Jacob Kyle/Ben Stambaugh.
The victory looked far-fetched on countless occasions, but Penn played some superb doubles to clinch the tie and silence the packed home crowd.
Penn was down 1-2 through singles, with Lippert proving to be the only victor with an imposing 6-3, 6-3 win.
The Doubles teams looked to be under some pressure knowing that their matches would be the deciders.
Penn’s No. 1 Doubles looked down and out as they lost the first set 6-4, and were down marginally in the second. But Sytsma and Weaver battled back to win the second set 6-4 and went on to win the third set 6-3 with some incredible shots from the Freshmen/Senior duo.
The Kinsgmen No. 2 Doubles team led 7-5, 5-2, but the Spartans came right back to win the second set 7-6. But the Penn Juniors didn’t let it get to them and came out fighting in the third set to seal the deciding match in front of a packed crowd.
Penn Senior Chris Chen bowed out of the Singles Individuals in the ‘Last 16’ matching his previous best effort back when he was a Sophomore.
On the other hand, Penn’s No. 1 doubles Josh Weaver/Noah Systema hold onto their place in the State doubles competition with back-to-back third set victories.
An overall historic day for Penn Boys Tennis and an incredible achievement by the valiant Kingsmen who won’t stop there.
Penn’s Boys Tennis will say goodbye to Coach Eric Bowers and Seniors Chris Chen, Evan Knapp and Noah Sytsma at the end of the season, so the boys will definitely have some extra motivation to extend their great form and beat Center Grove on Friday, Oct. 18 in State quarter-finals action.
