Hofmann and Voinov Fall in WPIAL Semi-Finals
The first day of WPIAL Doubles Championship Play for AAA teams took place at the Club in Monroeville Thursday afternoon, and the Tiger duo, seniors Richard Hofmann and Ivan Voinov reached the semi-finals before bowing out. Following a great performance in the Section 2 tournament, the Tigers were seeded third overall and opened play against Harrison Chui and Stefan Cvetkovic of Upper St. Clair. The Tigers took that set 10-4. The quarterfinal round saw a match-up with familiar foes, Fox Chapel. Voinov and Hofmann prevailed against Jared Nord and Karsten Lagerquist, again by a 10-4 score. The semi-finals were contested against the #2 overall seeds from Shady Side Academy, Naman Dua and Colin Grimley. Both teams recorded a service break and traded identical 6-4 scores in the first two sets. The third set again proved eventful, as the Tigers were broken multiple times and found themselves down 4-1. They fought back with two breaks of their own but the third break never came, and another set was determined by a 6-4 score, with Shady Side moving on to the finals.
Congratulations to Richard Hofmann and Ivan Voinov, as the two seniors will continue their academic careers at Penn State and Pitt, respectively. The four year starters competed at a high level in all matches, including Section, WPIAL and PIAA contests. We wish them the best in all of their future endeavors!