Mai Tue DALLAS POST Sports Mounts serve up championship By DAVE KONOPKI Dallas Post Editor Paige Kyle was | one of six se- | niors to lead Dallas to a championship this season. ALLAS TWP. — Four years ago, the Dal- las girls tennis team struggled to its sec- | ond consecutive 1-11 season. Three years ago, there were hardly enough players to @ put a team on the court. This season, the Mountaineers can call them- selves champions. rl The Dallas program capped its remarkable resur- / gence by posting a perfect 11-0 record in division play enroute to winning the Northeast Pennsylvania Ten- / nis Conference Northern Division championship. The Class 2A Mountaineers finished with an overall record of 12-2, losing to unbeaten Southern Division champion Berwick and Coughlin. Both of those schools compete in Class 3A. “It’s areal tribute to the girls,” said fifth- +. year coach Mike Balutansky. “They * kept working hard and they nev- er gave up. It was a great sea- FOR THE DALLAS POST/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK © ate sal ioe wars “It's a real tribute to the girls. think his team would capture They kept working hard and they ~ the championship. In fact, he % says there were many times when he wondered whether or not it would win another match. “They’re awful in practice, just aw- ful,” said Balutansky, with a laugh. “There were times when it looked as though we couldn’t beat anyone. But once match time comes, they know how to focus and win.” : Balutansky praised the leadership of seniors Paige & Kyle, Claire Mitchell, Rachel Schaub, Alicia Evans, "Nicole Madden and Jamie Novitski, and says all 23 players on the roster contributed to the title. “It’s a team sport. I try to express that to all the players,” he said. “We received a lot of support by the non-regular players. Our seniors did a great job. Al- icia, Paige and Rachel have been with us for all four years. I'm very happy for them.” Several attempts to interview the three four-year never gave up. It was a great season.” i Mike Balutansky Dallas tennis coach Christina Toussant was a key player for Dallas this season. Rachel seniors were unsuccessful before press time. Schaub On the court, the Mountaineers were led by No. 1 was the singles player Erica Lisses; Kyle was the No. 2 sin- No. 3 sin- gles player; and Schaub was No. 3. The No. 1 doubles gles player team of Alicia Evans and Kristen O’Brien only lost for Dallas. one match in Class 2A. But perhaps the most incredible statistic involved & the No. 2 doubles team of senior Claire Mitchell and freshman Danielle Harding. Seven times this season, the match went down to the final competition with I the score tied at 2-2. And all seven times the team of See TENNIS, Page 8 A young backyard rivalry It might not be as intense as their counterparts on the high school level, but the backyard rivalry between Dallas and Lake-Lehman continued on the junior high school level eal, The NOUS CT Alicia Kaiser, left, of Dallas challenges Lake-Lehman's Nikki ey games, both being played Sutliff for the ball during a junior high field hockey game. at the Lake-Lehman fields. Attempts to obtain the game results from both schools were not successful. > PHOTOS FOR THE DALLAS POST/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Christian Pyros, left, of Dallas and Kevin Cope of Lake-Lehman scramble for control of the ball during a junior high school soccer game. David Miller, left, of Dallas ] dribbles the ball ahead of Lake-Leh- man's Jay Dawson. Lake-Lehman's Sara Hagenback and Salena Adamshick keep the ball away from Casey Scafella of Dallas.
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