As evidenced by recent semifinal showings in the District 6 tournament, Catelyn Janac and Quiana Guo are more than capable players on a singles court.
Their styles are so complementary, though, that the total might even be better than the sum of its parts when they compete as a team.
The State College duo brought District 6 Class 3A girls’ doubles tennis gold medals back to Centre County with a stirring 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Altoona’s top-seeded Emma Skelley and Morgan Stevens in the finals on Oct. 9 at the Herb Faris Courts at Mansion Park.
It was the second straight title for Janac, who combined with Kelly Vanden to capture the gold for the Lady Little Lions last fall as a sophomore. She and Guo will face the District 1 runner-up in the first round of the PIAA tournament on Nov. 1 at the Hershey Racquet Club.
“It’s so much fun,” Janac said. “I love doubles, because you’re working with somebody. It’s a lot of fun to play doubles and win, because you have somebody with you.”
Janac and Guo also dispatched Central Mountain’s second-seeded Kendall Mc-Cluskey and Carolina Carponetti, 6-1, 6-0, in the semifinals on Oct. 8. They entered the bracket seeded third, even though they’d played doubles together just once during the regular season, winning a match against Mercersburg Academy.
State College coach Jane Borden let Guo and Janac play off each other’s strengths en route to the championship: The long-limbed, nearly-6-foot Janac cuts at imposing figure near the net, while the barely-5-foot Guo’s agility and array of shots makes her terrific on the baseline.
“She gets the volleys and the overheads,” Guo said of Janac. “I’m better at running around and hitting normal groundstrokes. I feel like that’s a good mix.”
It’d be difficult to disagree with the results. After having their serve broken twice in the first set — once in the very first game, and then again in the seventh game when they only won one point and looked to be on the ropes — Janac and Guo settled into their roles and took the initiative.
“It took us a little while to figure it out,” Janac said. “Once we did, it worked really well.”
There was drama in the second set, when the Lady Little Lion duo nearly squandered a 5-1 lead before Guo held serve and State broke Skelley to even the match.
After the teams split the first two games of the deciding set, the Lady Little Lions bolted to a 4-1 lead. A Janac smash made it 5-2. Then, after another Janac winner on deuce, Skelley’s return was long on championship point.
“One thing about them is they’ll never quit,” Borden said. “We made some adjustments in our strategy. We just had to be willing to hit overheads and volleys.”
With Janac controlling the net while both Altoona players played back, State College hit 29 winners to Altoona’s 13.
“We adjusted really well. We just kind of understood how they were going to play and worked it out (as we went along),” Janac said. “We motivate each other really well. That’s another reason we’re a good team.”
Altoona’s approach was to continue peppering the other side of the court with lobs, forcing Guo and Janac to be patient and maintain their poise to return. In the opening set, that was an issue, as State College committed 21 unforced errors and double-faulted twice, while Altoona only made eight unforced errors.
In the subsequent 20 games, State College forced Altoona to make shots. The Lady Little Lions made 47 unforced errors, but Altoona made nearly as many — 37.
“When we came back from down 5-1 to 5-5, I thought we had all the momentum. It was just a matter that they executed some shots better than we did,” Altoona coach Eric Hovan said.
“Once we saw that they actually were going to be lobbing, we did better, because (we knew what to expect),” Guo said.
Altoona gained a measure of revenge on the Lady Little Lions on Oct. 14 by upending State College, 3-0, in the finals of the District 6-3A team tournament. State College was the No. 1 seed. Altoona was seeded second.
Altoona prevailed on the strength of two wins in doubles and a victory in No. 1 singles. The other matches were abandoned once the winner of the team match was determined.
District 6-3A singles champ Alese Rinker downed Guo, 6-3, 6-2. In the doubles events, Isabella Frank and Sophia Caputo topped Emily Zhang and Rachel Buterbaugh, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, and May Crownover and Emily Neil scored a 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 victory over Sruthi Ramesh and Saoirse Hopp.
Janac was trailing Stevens, 6-4, 6-6, and Marissa Xu was up on Skelley, 1-6, 6-3, 3-0, when their matches were called.
The Lady Little Lions advanced to the team finals with a 3-0 win over visiting Hollidaysburg on Monday, Oct. 14.
Janac and Xu scored team points for State College in singles, while the team of Hopp and Ramesh prevailed in doubles. Janac defeated Ella Jodon, 6-3, 6-1, in the No. 2 slot, with Xu prevailing against Lydia Lieb, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 3.
Hopp and Ramesh dispatched Hollidaysburg’s No. 2 doubles tandem of Jocelyn Randolph and Rachel Gallagher, 6-1, 6-1.
Because a team winner had been determined, Guo’s singles match against Greta Rhodes and Zhang and Buterbaugh’s doubles clash with Madeline Waibel and Jennifer Lasik didn’t have to be completed and were abandoned.
