WPIAL boys tennis openers among Monday’s 3 things to watch

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, March 12, 2018 | 1:42 AM

The weather forecast predicts a high temperature in the mid-40s Monday afternoon with a chance of snow flurries earlier in the day, but the WPIAL calendar says it's time to go play outside.

That might not happen, of course, but Monday is officially the first day that Pennsylvania's boys tennis teams can play regular-season matches this season. A number of WPIAL school have non-section matches on their tennis schedules.

Here are three contests of note:

Hampton at Fox Chapel, 3:30 p.m.

Fox Chapel is the two-time defending WPIAL Class AAA team champion and saw then-sophomore Robby Shymansky finish as WPIAL runner-up in the singles tournament last year.

Hampton also reached the WPIAL playoffs last season.

Pine-Richland at Peters Township, 3:30 p.m.

Peters Township was the team that lost to Fox Chapel in the WPIAL championship, but the Indians celebrated a singles championship when then-freshman Connor Bruce defeated Shymansky in the finals 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6).

Pine-Richland lost to Fox Chapel in the WPIAL quarterfinals last year.

Upper St. Clair at North Allegheny, 3:30 p.m.

These two successful programs own multiple WPIAL team titles and make frequent finals appearances. Most recently, USC was WPIAL champion in 2015, and NA was runner-up in 2016. A year ago, North Allegheny reached the WPIAL team quarterfinals and USC was a semifinalist.

Section matches start March 19 for most teams and March 21 for others.

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.