Photo by Tyler Bennett Parkesburg Catholic’s Taylor Isaly serves during a match against Ripley. Isaly is one of seven Crusader singles’ players who qualified for the state tournament Friday at Robert C. Byrd High School.

CLARKSBURG– Repeating as the Class AA/A Region II was put on the hold for the Parkersburg Catholic Crusaders boys’ and girls’ tennis teams.

Both groups managed to only finish the singles bracket, due to the weather forcing doubles to resume today at Robert C. Byrd High School.

Catholic’s head coach Jason Discini sends all of his singles boys and three out four girls to Coonskin Park in Charleston for the Class AA/A West Virginia high school tennis state tournament on Thursday.

“They did fantastic. Right now, we are in a really good position to win both girls and boys regional titles,” Discini said. “We just need to continue executing, stay focused and with a couple more wins. We could win both before finals.”

Entering as the No.3 in the boys’ number two side, Ben Vierheller won 8-4 in the semis and shutout Lincoln’s Justin Vance in the finals.

The top seed of the No. 3 bracket, Cary Roberts dropped only three games, winning 8-1 versus Dylan Wolfe of Philip Barbour in the finals.

During the finals in the four singles’ bracket, Bradon Nguyen and Bridgeport’s Aaron Randolph battled through the heat and cramping in the finals.

But it was Nguyen that overcame the elements, winning 9-7 over Randolph.

“It was a real close matchup that could’ve went either way, but Bradon gutted it out and won. It was a good win for him,” Discini said.

The only Crusader that did not receive a first-round bye in singles, top player Aidan Roberts dropped only one match in the first two rounds. He tripled that in a losing effort against Grafton’s top-seeded Emilien Brazilier in the semifinals.

By reaching the semis, the 2018 Class AA/A No. 2 singles’ state runner-up gets a chance to add champion to his name for the second time in his career.

He won’t face Brazilier until the finals either. Thanks to an 8-3 win over Lewis County’s Ethan Thomas in the consolation bracket, Aidan drew a regional runner-up not a champion.

Three out of the four girls singles qualified for states, as all four made it to the finals in their respective bracket.

Two-time state champion and No.1 Marie Discini would only lose one game in the bracket one finals. She beat Lincoln’s Allison Rockwell, 8-1.

Returning state champion in girls No.2 Hannah Sprout won 8-1 in both the second round, semis and via shutout in the finals.

In a close match in the finals of the third bracket, No.3 Taylor Isaly lost 9-7 to Philip Barbour’s Cloie Mossesso. Even with the loss, Isaly still qualified for Charleston

Needing to win the fourth bracket in order to make an appearance in the state tournament and playing her fifth game, Mackenzie Campbell made it all the to the finals but lost 8-3 to Bridgeport’s Sophia Gorby.

“She felt that she was playing with house money, so she tried her best,” Discini said, “She fought her way through it, but the other girl beat her, she was just the better player.”

The only double team that played for Catholic was the pairing of freshmen Cecilia Shaw and Claire Erdeyli, who lost 9-7 Thursday night. Up by 7-7 and having match point twice, the lack of experience proved to doom the young pair. Losing the advantage and later giving up the lead.

“It was heartbreaking, but we had two freshmen girls that exceeded expectations for the year,” Discini said, “They are going to come out gaining a lot of experience from this loss and looking forward to seeing what they do next year.”

Action resumes at 8 a.m. today at Robert C Byrd High School, but could be moved inside to Morgantown High School if the weather changes.