Today marks the beginning of the Class 1A state tennis tournament at Baker Park and Frederick High School.
The quarterfinals commence at 10:30 a.m., followed by the semifinals later in the day. On Saturday, the state finals and third- and fourth-place matches will take place.
Last week at Mountain Ridge High School, regional champions in boys’ and girls’ singles, boys’ and girls’ doubles, and mixed doubles qualified for the state tournament.
Three of these events were won by Mountain Ridge, while Allegany and Southern each won one.
Eliza Duncan and Kendall Kirkwood of Mountain Ridge are the top-seeded doubles team and enter the tournament with a 15-1 record. In the quarterfinals, they will face Mackenzie Fox and Abbie Kemp of St. Michael’s.
State seeding was determined at a meeting held at Howard High School on May 23. The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association employs random seeding for its regional tournaments.
Jonathan Nelson and Chazz Imes of Allegany are the No. 2 seeds in boys doubles and will face Noah Cusak and Chris Jozwik of McDonough in the opening round.
Liberty’s Nikhil Andhavarapu and Arjun Mistry, the defending state champions, are the top-seeded pair.
Drew Haberlein of Mountain Ridge and Julie Blumentrath of Southern are seeded fourth in boys and girls singles, respectively.
Haberlein will face Scott Noble of Washington in the quarterfinals, while Blumentrath will face Alaina Foran of North East.
Thursday, eighth-seeded Marissa Greig/Aiden Pirolozzi of Mountain Ridge will face top-seeded Grace Maerten/Hayden Speace of Liberty in mixed doubles.