Rupp 11-2008 Media Highlights – November 2008 o The Altoona Mirror follows its five local competitors at the PIAA Girls’ Tennis State Championships o Two PIAA singles champions are from Pittsburgh area o North Allegheny wins PIAA State Championship o The Evening Bulletin reports on Tessa Lyons State Championship o Ann LoPrinzi and the Trenton Times reports on the Princeton Tennis Program and its quest to find a home o The Daily Collegian reports the Penn State University Club Tennis team has a busy spring ahead o LoPrinzi previews USTA’s upcoming Tennis Night in America o LoPrinzi dissects a new camp for elite players in the Princeton area Scholastic tennis players finish up year Nov. 1, 2008 All five area representatives in the PIAA Singles and Doubles Tennis Championships won their first matches on Friday at the Hershey Racquet Club, but all five lost in the quarterfinals. Altoona senior Kirsten Messner, the District 6 Class AAA runner-up, breezed past McDowell junior Abby Taylor, the District 10-AAA champ, 6-1, 6-1. She then faced Mechanicsburg sophomore Jarmila Petercakova, the District 3 champ, in the AAA singles quarterfinals and fell, 6-0, 6-0. WPIAL champs double up November 2, 2008 North Allegheny's Jen Larimore and Kelly Whelan already had two WPIAL doubles championships, now they also have a PIAA title. Whelan, a sophomore, and Larimore, a senior, won the PIAA Class AAA championship yesterday with a 6-3, 7-5 victory against Manheim Township's Caroline Barry and Lauren Stauffer at the Hershey Racquet Club. Larimore and Whelan did not lose a set in the three-match tournament. In singles, Plum freshman Ronit Yurovsky made it to the Class AAA final before losing to Strath Haven's Tessa Lyons, 7-6 (7), 6-3. Lyons beat Latrobe's Joelle Kissell in the semifinals. In Class AA, Vincentian's Elise Held finished third, beating WPIAL champion Sarah Shashura of California, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in the consolation match. 1 Rupp 11-2008 Payback is sweet as North Allegheny wins state tennis title November 2, 2008 By Chris Adamski The North Allegheny girls' tennis team didn't like the outcome of its high-stakes match with a gold medal on the line against Shady Side Academy the first time around, but the Tigers made the most of their second chance eight days later. North Allegheny lost to the Indians, 3-2, in the WPIAL Class AAA team tennis championship match Oct. 17. Last weekend, the Tigers got a rematch -- this time for the PIAA title -- and returned the favor with a 3- 2 victory at the Hershey Racquet Club. Refusing To Lose: Strath Haven's Lyons Wills Herself To State Singles Tennis Title November 2, 2008 By Kevin Hall Once Tessa Lyons got over her mental block at the state tennis tournament, she finally fulfilled her destiny by winning this year's PIAA Class AAA singles title Saturday at Hershey Racquet Club. The Strath Haven junior had to play from behind to earn her first state championship. Trailing 4-1 in the first set, Lyons regrouped before coming away with the victory, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3, against Plum's Ronit Yurovsky, a standout freshman who now holds a 4-2 record over Lyons in head-to-head meetings this year. PTP finds a home with courts November 16, 2008 By Ann LoPrinzi Since Gwen Guidice became executive director of the Princeton Tennis Program (PTP) 13 years ago, she has been trying to find a home for this historic organization. It finally happened a couple weeks ago, when PTP agreed to purchase Princeton Indoor Tennis Center (PITC) on Washington Road in Princeton Junction. The transaction is expected to take place by the end of the year. PTP was founded in 1954 and is one of the nation's oldest and most successful non-profit community tennis associations. It is managed by a nine-member board of trustees, operates out of an office in Skillman, and leases courts from area clubs to run its many programs. It has never, however, had courts of its own. Now PTP's offices will be moving into the club and will be able to provide additional programming for its growing constituency. Club tennis prepares for spring November 21, 2008 By Ryan Loy Several yellow blurs flew back and forth, while the sound of shuffling feet and thuds of tennis balls bouncing off racquets resonated within the Sarni Indoor Tennis Facility. There, the Penn State Club Tennis team was practicing in anticipation of its ultimate mission next spring. The team's victory in the Middle States Section of the United States Tennis Association Campus Championship earlier this fall earned it a spot in the USTA National Championship to be held April 16-18 of next year. Between now and April, the team hopes to work on a few aspects of their game to improve on what's been a solid start to the season. Women's 'Showdown' is fundraiser and part of 'Tennis Night in America' November 23, 2008 By Ann LoPrinzi The NetJets Showdown, an exhibition match held in March and featuring Pete Sampras vs. Roger Federer, was so successful that tennis is returning to Madison Square Garden in the form of a contrived women's event. 2 Rupp 11-2008 Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic will face off in a one-night- only single-elimination showdown which will also celebrate tennis legend Billie Jean King. "The BNP Pa ribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup" is scheduled for Monday, March 2 and will be telecast live on HBO, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Elite junior tennis players to benefit from camp led by coach Benny Sims November 30, 2008 BY Ann LoPrinzi Mercer County's new indoor tennis center, which opened just a month ago in Mercer County Park, is already paying big dividends. The Mercer County Tennis Center Invitational Holiday Camp featuring Benny Sims will be held 9 a.m. to noon Dec. 26-30 for highly ranked juniors. This is the first time the county is taking on that segment of the tennis-playing population. 3 .