Cathedral Prep tennis duo James Casella and Gavin Ferretti win a state championship

HERSHEY – Cathedral Prep boys tennis coach Pat Grab was looking to pair up senior James Casella in doubles to enable him to make a deep playoff run this spring. Jonah Ng was set to dominate in singles for the Ramblers, so doubles was the way to go.

Sophomore Gavin Ferretti was the solution.

“We talked about it over the winter and knowing Jonah was in singles, we'd need the best pair for doubles,” Grab said. “Gavin was our next best player and it made the most sense.”

Casella and Ferretti didn't lose a set on Saturday as they cruised to the PIAA Class 2A doubles title at the Hershey Racquet Club. Casella and Ferretti became the sixth doubles state champion in program history and first since Joe DeMarco and Alec Thomas won in 2018.

“It feels amazing. I don't know how to describe it,” Casella said. “This is everything. It's the highest you can get in high school tennis and I'm thrilled I was able to do it with Gavin.”

After winning in straight sets in the first round on Friday, the pair outlasted Lancaster Country Day's duo of Andrew Yanero and Ivan Bene 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.

“The quarterfinal split was a tough match and we had tough matches all weekend,” Ferretti said. “We've been looking forward to this tournament for a while so it feels really good to win.”

With one of the best doubles teams in the state out of the way, Casella and Ferretti rolled on Saturday with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Will Cecchini and Sarthak Vishwakarma of Lewisburg in the semifinals and a 6-2, 6-1 win over Chris Ji and Levi Santa of Masterman in the championship match.

Prep also has doubles state titles in 1984, 2012, 2016 and 2017.

“We felt good about this all weekend especially they were playing in the final. They were playing at such a high level they were almost unbeatable,” Grab said. “This means a lot for our program and PIAA gold medals are always the goal. Other programs count District 10 titles, but we count PIAA gold medals.”

Contact Tom Reisenweber at treisenweber@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNreisenweber.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Cathedral Prep tennis duo Casella and Ferretti win state championship