What to watch for in WPIAL sports for Oct. 7, 2021: WPIAL girls golf gold up for grabs

By: Don Rebel
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 | 8:32 PM

You could say that a select few WPIAL girls golfers and tennis players will be in action Thursday and Friday for the love of gold.

First, 36 Class 3A and 18 Class 2A district golfers will tee off Thursday morning in the 2021 WPIAL girls individual golf championships at the Hannastown Golf Club in Greensburg.

The top three finishers in both classes from the 2020 championships are in this year’s field.

Mt. Lebanon senior Lindsey Powanda is the defending 3A champion after she beat Caroline McConnell of South Fayette by two strokes last year. Nina Busch of Fox Chapel finished third. All three were juniors last fall.

In 2A, 2019 and 2020 champion Eva Bulger of Quaker Valley is back to try a three-peat. The Zambruno sisters from Greensburg Central Catholic have also qualified for Thursday’s event. Senior Meghan finished second last year while twin sister Ella was third.

In the 3A field, Fox Chapel has four golfers who qualified while Moon, North Allegheny, South Fayette and Peters Township have three each.

Greensburg Central Catholic has four golfers in the 2A field while Central Valley has three.

Double your tennis

Two weeks after crowning singles champions, the district on Thursday will crown Class 3A and 2A girls doubles champions.

Sixteen duos in 3A and 15 pairs in 2A began the fight for WPIAL gold with first round and quarterfinal matches on Thursday. Four teams remain in each bracket.

The finals and consolation matches will be at North Allegheny on Thursday.

Four sophomores are the top seeds in both classifications. Elana Sobol and Rachel Nath from Shady Side Academy are the top seed in 3A while the sister duo of Emily and Lindsey Greb of Knoch are No. 1 in 2A.

Brooke and Ally Bauer of Knoch were the WPIAL Class 2A champions last year.

Week 6 kicks off

Talk about a short week.

Three days after losing to Allderdice, 28-14, on Monday at Cupples Stadium, Perry returns to the same site for a Thursday game to kick off Week 6 of the high school football season.

The Commodores will try to snap a four-game losing streak when they battle former City League foe Carrick at 7 p.m.

The Raiders are winless at 0-5 this season, playing an independent schedule for a second straight year. Carrick has lost 25 straight games and is searching for its first victory since beating Bridgeport, Ohio, in October of 2017.