ALTOONA — Quiana Guo was concerned that all the extra time she’s been putting into her academics might have undermined her hopes to retain her District 6 Class 3A girls’ singles tennis championship.
Then the State College Area High School senior got onto the court and analyzed and dissected the game of rival Gretta Rhodes of Hollidaysburg in the finals for the second year in a row, defending her crown, 6-4, 6-2, on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at a windy Herb Faris Courts.
“This year, I focused a little bit more on science, since (research science is) what I want to pursue, so that made me a little bit more nervous this year,” said Guo, who, with the win, punched her ticket to the PIAA singles tournament in Hershey a couple of weeks.
“It makes it feel a little bit sweeter.”
Guo broke the Lady Tiger senior’s rocket serve on her first three of her first four opportunities to build a 5-2 lead in the first set. With a set in hand, the diminutive Lady Little Lion, won the second, third, fourth and fifth games after dropping the first in the second set and was well on her way to becoming a two-time singles champ.
She closed out the match in 90 minutes with a love game as Rhodes’ return went wide.
“The plan was similar to last year’s: to keep the ball deep and force the errors rather than rushing it and making the errors myself,” Guo said. “Once I could settle in more, it felt easier for me. It just felt more comfortable. Toward the beginning of the second set, I was down love-one when she was serving, but then I got my groove.”
Guo was a 6-3, 6-1 winner last year against Rhodes, who might possess the hardest forehand in serve in the district. After a number of unforced errors early, though, Guo was able to put it together, returning just about everything in what turned into a very competitive, cleanly-played match with several very long rallies.
“She’s very consistent. She gets to every ball. She’s good at the net. She’s good allaround. Her serve’s great, very consistent, very few double-faults,” a somber Rhodes said. “She’s a great player. She plays at a high level and it was a tough match for both of us. Any other day it could have gone another way, but she played really well.”
Rhodes said she thought she needed to jump on Guo early with her power, then start attacking at the net.
Guo, though, successfully kept Rhodes from dictating the style of play. She ended up with 17 winners to Rhodes’ nine while having one fewer unforced error (35-34). Rhodes also had nine double-faults; Guo had one.
While the second-seeded Rhodes breezed into the championship match with a 6-1, 6-1 victory against Guo’s teammate, Kelly Steel, on Sept. 27, Guo needed to gut out a 6-4, 6-4 match against Altoona’s third-seeded Morgan Stevens, who had defeated Guo in her first trip to the finals in 2020.
Guo was down 4-3 in both sets before winning the last three games to advance.
“She had a little bit of an off-day and she was able to just compete enough that she could get through that match, even though her shots weren’t as good as they normally are. She settled in, did what she could and she fights hard,” said Lady Little Lion assistant coach Rob Tawse, who was filling in while Jane Borden was away for the birth of her second grandchild. “She had a plan (against Rhodes) and she executed it perfectly.”
Although not quite on Rhodes’ level in raw power, Guo showed she’s developed in that department, too, driving the ball both with her forehard and twohand backhand and putting away several smashes at the net to complement some pinpoint lobs.
She also registered the only service ace of the match in the second game of the second set.
“Over the summer, I was in Pittsburgh. I found some bigger hitters, so that might have helped,” Guo said.
Guo’s benefited, as well, playing in an era in D6-3A with two players in Rhodes and Stevens who were on her level and could bring out the best in her.
“When I found out these two were going to be with me the whole way up, it made me work a bit harder and put in more time, and I love it, so it didn’t feel like work,” said Guo, who took up tennis in sixth grade when a friend convinced her to tag along to a clinic and now hopes to continue the sport at least on the clubteam level in college.
Both State College entries into the District 6 Class 3A girls’ doubles tournament made it to the semifinals at Gorilla House and the Summit Tennis and Athletic Club before being sidelined on Tuesday, Oct.
4. Seeded third, Steel and Allison Norloff fell to Altoona’s second-ranked tandem of Morgan Stevens and Sophia Caputo, 6-1, 6-4. Norloff and Steel opened the tournament with a 6-1, 6-0 victory against Mifflin County’s Katey Riden and Makenna Yoder before dispatching Williamsport’s Breanna Chicas and Allyson McCann by an identical score in the quarterfinals.
Unseeded Abby Chen and Emily Zhang upset the fourth-seeded team of Claire Long and Zeta Blesh of Central Mountain, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2 in the quarterfinals before being eliminated by Hollidaysburg’s top-seeded Gretta Rhodes and Megan Ferris, 6-0, 6-2. Zhang and Chen were 6-1, 6-1 winners against Selinsgrove’s Maggie Johnson and Shannon Sprenkle in the round of 16.
The Lady Little Lions completed a perfect, 15-0 regular season with a 5-0 sweep of host Harrisburg on Friday, Sept. 30, as Guo and the teams of Norloff and Steel and Zhang and Juju Dye all won 6-0, 6-0.
Chen scored a team point in singles with a 6-1, 6-1 victory. The other point came by virtue of Bea Fernandez-Medina taking a singles set, 6-0 and Ephrasinia Shimelis and Ava Bechtel doing the same in a doubles set.
