Competition hits close to home for Quaker Valley’s Sirianni twins

By: Greg Macafee
Sunday, April 18, 2021 | 11:01 AM

Stepping onto the tennis court to compete for a WPIAL section title is a goal in itself, but imagine stepping onto the court and seeing your twin on the opposite side.

Twin brothers Mike and Will Sirianni, who are juniors at Quaker Valley, found themselves in that situation April 8 when they were playing for the Section 4-AA singles title.

Mike ended up winning the match, 6-3, 6-4, and while it was a special moment for the brothers, he said they were just trying to treat it like another match.

“It was one of the few competitive matches that we’ve played,” Mike said. “It’s nothing too different, we were just an opponent across the court from each other.”

But it was also a goal for the twins.

“It was fun and we had that initial thought that Mike and I would meet each other because that was the goal,” Will said. “We just wanted to play till we meet each other and then have fun and see how it plays out.”

Mike cruised through the top part of the section singles bracket, beating Keystone Oaks’ Quinn Kenny, 10-0, and Aquinas’ Jackson Gillespie, 6-0, 6-1, to punch his ticket to the section finals. Will found himself at the other end of the bracket as he beat Keystone Oaks’ Hayden Kenny, 10-1, and earned a spot opposite his brother with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Winchester Thurston’s Oscar Nigam.

Then Mike and Will had a whole night to think about what it was going to be like the next day when they faced off for the section title.

“We weren’t really nervous or anything, we were kind both just like, ‘Good job, we made it,’” Will said. “I think we were both just looking forward to playing each other and looking past that into WPIALs as well.”

Mike and Will went from the section tournament to the WPIAL singles tournament April 14-15, and they found themselves on the same stage once again. This time though, the brothers were next to each other.

As Mike competed for the WPIAL singles championship against North Catholic’s Nicolas Scheller, Will was on the court right next to him competing for third place against Thomas Jefferson’s Drew Dimidjian.

“It feels good for both of us to have made it this far into the WPIAL tournament,” Mike said after dropping his match to Scheller, 6-1, 6-1.

Will ended up dropping his match to Dimidjian, 6-1, 6-3, but in the end, their journey to the first- and third-place matches in the WPIAL tournament was a result of the hard work they put in over the past year.

Along with the rest of the WPIAL, the Sirianni twins didn’t have the opportunity to play high school tennis last season after the coronavirus pandemic canceled the spring sports season. But that didn’t stop them from putting in work throughout the offseason to come back prepared for this year.

“Mike and I are of similar levels, so we each have good hitting partners,” Will said. “So, over the break, we just tried to get out whenever we could and play as much as we could. We tried to work on things that we might lose like that match toughness and the touch. So that was great to have that person to play with whenever I wanted. It’s just one of the advantages of having a twin brother who plays tennis.”

They also motivated each other to keep working. When one may not have wanted to practice, the other one was right there to convince him.

“It’s definitely nice having someone who you are always with that can play,” Mike said. “You can always just go and hit around, even if it’s just for 30 minutes. It’s definitely nice to have someone right next to me that’s always willing to play. We definitely push each other.”

Will and Mike aren’t done yet. After placing second in the WPIAL singles tournament, Mike has moved on to compete in the PIAA singles tournament; Will will turn his attention to the section and WPIAL doubles tournaments.

Both will continue to help the Quakers work toward a WPIAL team title, as well.

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Quaker Valley