The Norwin Knights Boys Tennis team showed a solid performance for the 2026 spring season. The varsity team’s record for the year was 10-4 and 6-2 in their section. The Knights have shown growth and strength in their session and really proved themselves this year.
The Knights opened their season on fire, winning four of their first five opponents. They opened with Mt. Pleasant on March 10 and won 5-0, and on March 21 swept Central Catholic, then Kiski on March 25, and Connellsville on March 27. The Knights, however, lost their next 2 matches to Section winner Franklin Regional and Section runner-up Gateway Gators.
“It’s hard because tennis is such an individual sport,” said junior Micheal Barone. “We don’t really interact with each other often but when we do, we have really good chemistry, we cheer each other on, and we’re just overall a good team to each other.”
On April 14 at WPIALS Doubles play, junior Jaxson Momeyer and senior Connor Gurekovich also led the team as they made it to the doubles section tournament. They beat Gateway but lost to Latrobe in the quarterfinals. Christopher Elliot and Daniel Metzger lost the first round to Gateway but still lead the team with strength and determination.
“[The match went] pretty good, we got an easy match when we took care of them,” said Elliot. “But we came across like a brick wall at some point, we had to play one of the best tennis players in our section. We got smoked. It’s alright, though, it was fun. It was an enjoyable time that I had the experience.”
The WPIAL team playoff for Norwin was on April 28 against Franklin Regional at 3:30 pm at Franklin Regional High School; however, the #10-seeded Norwin Knights lost 4-1 to the #7 seed in the team bracket.
“It felt good to qualify again [for Team Playoffs] this year,” said Barone. “We had a really strong team this year, so I was looking forward to seeing our progress this go around.”
Although the team lost, they still had a lot of faith in each other, knowing that going up against some tough opponents. They didn’t give up and had the determination to finish themselves off with a great end.
“The team really did well this year since we’ve beat a lot of tough opponents,” said JV coach Jack Momeyer. “Unfortunately that the two teams that we lost to in varsity for our two section matches were tough, it caused us to still stay in third place for the season, which is where we figured we’d finish, but we hoped that we had a chance to pull ahead of it.”
Despite falling short of a higher section placement, the team still considered the season a success after teaming down several strong opponents and improving throughout the year. Players helped the team stay competitive and finish the season with confidence heading into individual play.
“And overall,”
said junior Jaxson Momeyer, “the team season so that was really good and all I know is I had a positive record and that. I move up to second singles. Won more then lost.”
With strong individual performances and solid placements throughout the season, the team was able to end the season on a positive note. Although the team barely missed moving higher in their section standings, the players and coaches were proud of the progress the team made from last year, the difficult opponents they overcame, and the growth shown by the athletes across both varsity and junior varsity levels.
