Heritage girls win Dulles tourney tennis title
By Jason S. Rufner
After darkness postponed the Dulles District team girls' tennis championship match for five days, the Heritage Pride required just 12 minutes to complete a 5-3 victory against the Park View Patriots May 7 in Sterling Park.
The Pride's number one doubles combination, Meleah Nassar and Annie Replogle, began the resumption leading 3-0 in the second set holding a one-set advantage over the Patriots' Lisa Huynh and Thuy Nguyen.
Nassar and Replogle completed a 6-0 win in the second set to clinch the championship for Heritage.
"Many of the players had close, long matches and they showed a lot of determination and heart to win," commented Heritage coach Carmel Keilty. "These players truly care about each other and they want everyone to be successful."
The Pride had garnered four of six singles matches May 2 at host Potomac Falls, as Michelle Rudman and Minh Bui joined Replogle and Nassar in tallying victories.
Park View's Thuy Nguyen came back against Beth Gurney in a marathon three-hour match which included a 9-7 tie-breaker in the second set for one of the Patriots' singles wins. Megan Brown also won in singles for Park View.
With Heritage needing to win just one of the three doubles matches, the Patriots' number three tandem of Katie Antonacci and Sarah Groves bested Brianna Jacobs and Marina Barraj to bring the score to 4-3 before the looming Friday twilight prohibited further action.
Nassar emerged Monday as the district's singles champion, while Replogle and Nassar finished as runners-up to Loudoun County's Kerry Sarver and Megan Hurley for the doubles title.
The Patriots were without the services of Anastasia Heimann, out for the season with a broken right hand.
Both schools will compete in the Region II tournament, as Park View won the district's regular season title.