Hampton girls tennis aims to extend historic run

By: John Grupp
Saturday, August 16, 2025 | 11:01 AM

The Hampton girls tennis team has a place to call home again, but the names and faces are a little different.

Coming off the best two-year stretch in program history, the Talbots enter the 2025 season with a new-look lineup and some early question marks.

Four of the top seven players from last year’s PIAA Class 2A team qualifier have graduated, including WPIAL singles runner-up Grace Stitt, but the Talbots return three starters and welcome fresh reinforcements from a talented junior varsity team.

“I feel confident,” said sophomore Arianna Barbera, who will take over at No. 1 singles after playing No. 3 singles last season. “I feel like we have a pretty strong team this year. I think we are going to do well.”

The Talbots raised expectations with their recent two-year surge.

In 2023, they became the first team in program history to make states. They kept the momentum going last season, finishing 14-7, placing third in the WPIAL for the second straight year and returning to the PIAA team playoffs.

The Talbots enjoyed their historic ‘24 season despite playing every regular-season match on the road — and enduring a nomadic practice schedule — as the courts at Hampton Community Park underwent renovations.

“It will be nice to be back at home,” longtime coach Grant McKinney said after a steamy August practice at the refurbished courts.

Joining Barbera as returning starters are seniors McKenna Restori and Mackenzie Jones. Restori, who played doubles last season, is penciled in at No. 2 singles, while Jones is part of a logjam that includes new arrivals from a JV team that last season went 11-2, losing only to WPIAL Class 3A North Allegheny and Fox Chapel.

“There are a lot of girls who are pretty close (in ability),” McKinney said Aug. 12, the second day of tryouts. “They were all pretty close on JV, and they all worked hard, so they are all better. But they are close. If we had a match tomorrow, I would have no idea who I would start, except for Arianna at No. 1.”

Barbera is filling big shoes. She replaces Stitt, a two-time section champion who last season became the first Hampton girl to reach the PIAA singles championships in 30 years before heading to Grove City.

Barbera, who began playing tennis at age 4, appears up for the challenge. She had a strong offseason and was a clear standout during day two of the 18-player tryouts.

“She has gotten so much better,” McKinney said. “She worked really hard this offseason. She looks stronger. She looks more confident.”

Said Barbera, “I worked mostly on all of my strokes. I worked on my serve.”

The newcomers include sophomore Lola Pikalo, the sister of former Talbots boys No. 1 singles player Vitaliy Pikalo; juniors Vivian Sattler, Dillon Perry, a 30-goal lacrosse scorer, McKenzie Joyce and Daniela Khoury, and Olivia Hays-Reagan, one of three seniors on the youthful roster.

After last season’s all-road schedule, the Talbots this year have 12 of their 15 matches at home. They were scheduled to host Chartiers Valley, Franklin Regional and Quaker Valley in a three-day span starting Aug. 18 and open Section 3-2A play by hosting defending WPIAL champion North Catholic on Aug. 25.

The top three teams in the section qualify for the WPIAL playoffs, so the Talbots are strong contenders to reach the postseason for the third consecutive year.

“North Catholic is really good,” McKinney said, “but I think we have a really good chance against everyone else in our section.”

Not too bad for a program that missed the WPIAL playoffs from 2014-22, and went 0-11 in 2020 while in Class 3A.

McKinney said regardless of where this season takes the Talbots, he is confident the program will keep heading in the right direction.

“Odds are we’re not going to make states, right?” he said. “But we’re going to work hard, and I think (we need) to view wherever we get to as not a step back, but these younger players proving to themselves that they’ve made it to the varsity level and feeling like they’ve set the tone for the future to keep the status of the program moving forward.”

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