Bethel Park tennis player retains singles title
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Bethel Park’s Mia Gorman reaches for a backhand during the Section 4 singles championship match.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peters Township’s Kat Wang returns a forehand during a Section 4-AAA singles tournament match.
Upper St. Clair's Maggie Stief returns a backhand during a consolation match in the Section 4-AAA singles tournament.
Bethel Park’s Mia Gorman discovered that placement beats speed in tennis as she successfully defended her Section 4 singles title.
A senior, Gorman swept past Kat Wang of Peters Township, 6-4, 6-3, in the championship match played Sept. 16 at Bethel Park High School.
Gorman acknowledged that her opponent played well in taking a 4-3 lead to start the match.
“Kat came out swinging,” Gorman said. “I was a little flat — not hitting how I wanted to be hitting and not moving how I wanted to be moving.”
“I had to reset myself,” she added. “I was like ‘move’ and see the ball and get the ball where you want it to go. It doesn’t have to be hit a million miles an hour.”
Gorman closed out the first set winning three games and quickly opened up a seemingly insurmountable 4-1 margin in the second set.
“Toward the end of the first set I was winning more of the big points in the way I wanted to be. So I just let that carry over into the second set,” Gorman said. “I started (that set) how I wanted to be playing the whole first set.”
Gorman hopes to use the momentum she gained in sectionals to vault her to a second straight WPIAL championship. The WPIAL Class AAA singles tournament will be held Sept. 23-24 at Bethel Park High School.
“It’s a good start,” said Gorman. “I was pleased.”
Wang, who won Section 4 titles in 2018 and 2019, advances to the WPIAL singles tournament along with Maggie Stief of Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon’s Luisa Wannecke.
Wang beat Stief in the semifinals, 6-2, 7-5, while Gorman blanked Wannecke, 6-0, 6-0. Stief finished third with a straight set victory in the consolation.