The Norwin Girls Tennis team finished their season with an overall record of 7-5, with freshman Bayleigh Vilage heading into the WPIAL singles tournament on September 18, 2024. The Knights finished fourth in their section (Class 3A Section 1) this year, scoring 5-3 over nine tough opponents.
With three seniors this year, the Girls Tennis team was full of experienced players, contributing to their 5-3 overall Section record. Star players this season were number one singles player Bayleigh Vilage and number two singles player Sophia Lepore who headed into the WPIAL singles tournament on September 18. After gaining three more freshman players at the beginning of the 2024-2025 season, the freshman certainly held their own with Vilage later making it into the semi-finals for the singles WPIAL tournament.
Sophia Lepore and Bayleigh Vilage competed at the WPIAL singles tournament on September 11, 2024. After competing, Bayleigh Vilage qualified for the Semifinals and then competed at Franklin for a spot in the Finals on September 12, 2024. Vilage was set to play against sophomore Cami Fisher from Bethel Park on September 18, 2024. However, Vilage fell short to Fisher in the finals singles tournament, with a score of 10-1. Unfortunately, this match set Bayleigh Vilage out of the final WPIAL tournament for the singles players.
During the WPIAL Section singles tournament, 16 girls competed in the Class 3A tournament. Out of all of the girls, Vilage placed fourth and tied for the third place consolation, moving her on to the final playoffs round.
“Qualifying for the WPIAL singles competition, finishing as the #4 ranked player in the 3A Section was something that I never expected the achieve as a Freshman,” said Vilage. “I had experienced watching the Norwin Boys Tennis Team qualify at the team level, as my Dad is the Boys Coach here at Norwin, but never did I expect to advance to the WPIAL playoffs on an individual level. The quality of tennis I got to experience at WPIAL’s was unbelievable. My strategy was mostly mental toughness, because at this point, I already have the necessary skills, but what can break a tennis player down is their mental game. Not all people realize how much of a mentally tough sport tennis is.”
This year, three new freshmen joined the team: Nora Fedor, Sofia Thomas, and Bayleigh Vilage. After being coached by the varsity and junior varsity coaches, Coach Toops and Coach Sigler, in summer sessions during early mornings, the girls were well-prepared to transition into the 2024-2025 season.
“You need to be able to assess your opponents weaknesses in the 5 minutes of warmup you get with them,” said Vilage. “Once you do assess, you need to focus and concentrate on your game to find the best way to break their game. My overall strategy, which is similar to most tennis players’ strategy is to ‘hold’ my serve…meaning win all the games I am serving. And then, I only need to “break” (or win) their serve game one time to win the set. Mental toughness comes more into play here too because some days I can have a day where I am not serving the best, so it can break you down, if you allow it to. My end goal is always to win!”
Coach Toops has been coaching the varsity girls’ tennis team and Coach Sigler continued to mentor the JV teams this season. With three seniors heading into the 2024-2025 season, star freshman player Bayleigh Vilage and notable junior players Cassandra Halazynski and Mia Tamasy were taught many strategies by their senior captains.
“My greatest accomplishments of this season would be being a varsity team captain and being the second singles player on the team,” said girls’ tennis senior captain Sophia Lepore.
The Girls Tennis team also had notable doubles tennis players this year. Bayleigh Vilage and Sophia Lepore headed to the WPIAL doubles playoffs at Franklin Regional High School on September 26. Both girls faced off against two players from Hempfield and secured a huge win 10-1. On the same day, juniors Cassandra Halaszynski and Mia Tamasy competed against Penn Trafford and lost their game 10-1.
However, Vilage and Lepore competed against the winning Penn Trafford team the next day, September 27, at Franklin and lost 10-4 to the PT team.
“The key to the team’s success is our friendship with one another, our team improved throughout the season by not giving up, and my favorite part about the season has definitely been playing with close friends, that is what I will miss the most, the people and playing with my close friends,” said Lepore.
