Bethel Park duo capture WPIAL doubles title
With a berth in the state tournament already secured, Mackenzie Smock and Cassie Sierka of Bethel Park played with a “nothing-to-lose” attitude in the WPIAL Class 3A doubles championship match.
“We knew that we were already going to states. We were already qualified. So we just came out swinging free,” Smock said.
“It’s our senior year,” emphasized Sierka. “We are already going to states so I felt like we were just playing free.
Their relaxed manner resulted in a championship for Smock and Sierka. They made easy work of Cassie Lapina and Alex Merkel from Shady Side Academy, sweeping them in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, to capture the gold medals and the doubles crown on October 8 on their home courts at Bethel Park High School.
“We played with a lot more confidence than we normally do,” Sierka said. “We really stayed focused and I am so excited to win this.”
Smock agreed for a different reason.
“I’m just really excited that I got to play with Cassie. It’s something we’ve been looking forward to for a long time.”
Good friends off the courts, the duo have played tennis since they were 3 years old. They have trained at the Glen Creek Tennis Club for just as many years.
However, they had not been paired together until this year. Smock normally plays No. 2 singles while Sierka is strictly a doubles player for the Lady Hawks, who won the Section 4 title with an 8-0 record and entered the team playoffs with a 14-1 overall record.
“I just love being at the net,” Sierka said about why she likes doubles. She explained further her preference for tennis. “I really like how mental the game is and how it’s all on you.” She added with doubles, “I just love the team aspect of it.”
For Smock playing doubles was an adjustment that she embraced.
“It’s very different,” she said.
“I really love playing tennis but there’s parts of both (singles and doubles) that I like. I like having a partner. It’s a lot better to play with someone else.”
Both Smock and Sierka agreed they worked well together and their serves were “pretty good” in the finals.
“We just got on a roll,” Smock said.
Smock and Sierka rolled through both the section and district tournaments.
They won the Section 3A crown. After breezing through their opening matches, dispatching the Peters Township tandem of Molly Barry and Sabrina DeChicchis, 10-1, and the Upper St. Clair pair of Sera Telang and Laila Hamade, 10-2, Smock and Sierka defeated Canon-McMillan’s Hadley Sherman and Autumn Vogel in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, in the semifinals and USC’s Catalina Ramirez and Lily Angus, 6-2, 6-3, in the section final.
Seeded second in the WPIAL Class 3A bracket, Smock and Sierka blanked Fox Chapel’s Victoria Pfendler and Rino Tarai, 10-0, then beat Pine-Richland’s Sonya Aora and Eva Pellathy, 10-5, to reach the semifinals where they outlasted North Allegheny’s Mia Kaufman and Samantha Leeman, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, who claimed the final PIAA berth by beating Ramirez and Angus, 6-2, 6-3, in the consolation match.
“(The tournament) was pretty tough,” Sierka said. “Our section alone has a lot of great teams in it but we stayed focused and got through it.” Sierka added that the WPIAL semifinal was “a little rough” but it allowed the BP pair to play relaxed in the championship match.
“We were already guaranteed a spot in states,” Sierka explained. “So I just feel like (in the WPIAL final) we played as if we had nothing to lose.”
Both Sierka and Smock said they were “excited” to win Bethel Park’s first doubles title since Cami Fisher and Lily Sierka combined for the crown in 2023. The championship will also be a catalyst for success in the PIAA tournament to be held November 6-7 at the Hershey Racquet Club as well as the WPIAL team finals set for 2 p.m. on October 21 at the Janet L. Swanson Tennis Center on the Washington and Jefferson College campus.
“The doubles win does give us momentum for the team tournament and we are excited to be going to the state championships for the first time,” Sierka said
“Hopefully everyone’s on the top of their game (during the team tournament) and just go into it not having pressure on themselves,” said Smock. “At states, we are definitely going there to have fun, play our best, and win or lose, we just go out there swinging free.”
Beyond that, Smock and Sierka are up in the air regarding their future tennis plans. Both hope to play in college. Sierka, who owns a 3.8 GPA, plans to major in early childhood education. Smock, who owns a 4.25-weighted GPA, wants to study exercise science.