What duo helped McDowell win District 10's thrilling Class 3A boys team tennis final?

The 2024 results for McDowell’s boys tennis team will forever show a 1-2 record against Erie High.

Those same results will eternally list the Trojans as victors in the only dual that mattered.

McDowell, which was swept by the Royals during the regular season, avenged those Region 2 losses with a dramatic 3-2 victory in Friday’s District 10 Class 3A final at Westwood Racquet Club. The Trojans’ Vincent Azzato and Jacob Chiles rallied for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over Rowan Wilcko and Anthony Pellegrino in the decisive No. 2 doubles match.

“This is pretty awesome,” Azzato said. “This is my first year starting and it’s (Chiles’) senior year, so this means a lot to us.”

McDowell followed its white-knuckle win with a significantly easier one over Obama Academy in a PIAA 3A subregion dual. A 5-0 shutout of the District 8 Eagles qualified the Trojans, despite their 7-11 record, for next Tuesday’s first round of the state tournament.

McDowell will face Gateway at 1:15 p.m. at Westwood. That best-of-five dual will follow the noon clash between Cathedral Prep and North Catholic in the state's Class 2A bracket.

Prep (15-3) repeated as the district’s best small-school program thanks to Friday’s 5-0 sweeps of Warren and Fairview.

More: Top seeds John Sinnott and Jonah Ng prevail in District 10's boys tennis tournament finals

‘Better than when we started’

Erie High (10-4) was poised to win a district team tournament for the first time since the program’s 2017-18 birth. The Royals, led by 3A singles champion John Sinnott, beat McDowell 4-1 on the Trojans’ courts and again 3-2 in their region rematch.

Sinnott swept McDowell’s Noah Hardesty 6-2, 6-3 in Friday’s No. 1 singles match. Joel Lee and Cooper Heberle gained Erie High’s second point with a 6-0, 6-2 victory vs. Christian Neubert and Pratham Aithal in No. 1 doubles.

Gridley Wright (No. 2 singles) and Dan Idzik (No. 3 singles) accounted for the Trojans’ first two points.

Those cumulative results set the stage for the winner-take-all third set between Wilcko-Pellegrino and Azzato-Chiles. Although the latter duo lost the opening set to the former, they had faith a comeback was possible.

Azzato and Chiles defeated Wilcko and Pellegrino during each of McDowell’s previous losses to the Royals.

Breaking serve for a 3-1 lead in the third set was the ultimate turning point of Friday’s match, according to Chiles.

“We finally got a feel like, ‘We’ve got this,’” he said. “We’d beaten them before and we could totally do it again.”

“Towards the end (of the match), we were playing better than when we started.”

McDowell coach Andy Heinlein was elated with Friday’s outcome based on this season’s infusion of new players and starters.

He credited those same Trojans with peaking at the absolute best time.

“We lost our top three players from last year to graduation,” Heinlein said, “so I knew this was going to be a difficult year in some ways. But we also had a lot of 3-2 duals and that paid off for a lot of our players (Friday). They were used to playing in this kind of environment.”

More: How McDowell, Cathedral Prep duos win District 10 doubles tournament titles

‘One step in the process’

Prep’s match scores were pedestrian en route to its latest district crown.

Not only did the Ramblers blank Warren and Fairview, no Dragons or Tigers won more than four games in any set.

Prep coach Pat Grab started Jonah Ng, Gavin Ferretti and Colin Troutman in singles. James Casella and Cameron Grieshaber paired up for No. 1 doubles and Ty Hulick and Drew Brown for No. 2 doubles.

“I’m proud of this group and we’ve been looking forward to this (tournament) for a long time,” Grab said. “But we’ve got bigger goals ahead, so this is just one step in the process.”

Mike has worked for the Erie Times-News editorial department since 1997 and full time with its sports department since 2004. He was the sports editor for the former Titusville Herald from 1991-93.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: McDowell and Cathedral Prep claim District 10 boys team tennis titles