Only a freshman, playing on the biggest stage for high school tennis in the state, with an entire team and school's hopes for a PIAA title riding on the play of her and her partner against a team they had lost to just a week before, Vida Komer wasn't going to allow herself to feel any pressure.

Well, she does concede it was a lot easier because she and Emily Madalena had already staked a lead in the third set of their second doubles match against Upper St. Clair in the PIAA Class AAA team tennis championship match this past Saturday at the Hershey Racquet Club.

The team match tied at two matches apiece, the fates of both teams rested on second doubles, where Komer and Madalena split the first two sets against Chrissy Sandman and Molly O'Grady. Spectators, fans and teammates from both teams crowded the court where that match was being played.

"It was a lot of fun, especially because we definitely knew we could do it," Komer said. "If we hadn't have been up, we might have felt more pressure than fun. But it's really cool that's how it turned out."

Komer and Madalena, a junior, won the third set, 6-1, and the Indians' second PIAA team title in four years was sewn up.

"We hadn't really expected to do anywhere near as well as we did," Komer said. "It was real amazing."

Other winners in the title match were senior Julie Stroyne at first singles and sophomore Caroline Nixon at second singles. But the Indians' run to WPIAL and PIAA titles was truly a team effort.

Sophomores Elizabeth Palko and Eleni Coleman beat Upper St. Clair's first doubles team in the WPIAL championship match a week earlier and had also won their match during each of the first three rounds of the PIAA tournament.

Third singles player Laura Stroyne, a junior who is Julie's sister, also won during each of those wins against Erie McDowell, Abington and Radnor last week.

"It was definitely an overwhelming feeling," Palko said. "Everyone on the team can be extremely proud of themselves. Overall, we're just awed by the situation.

"We were so excited. It took the whole team to win. Some people won some matches and other people in other matches. It didn't really matter who won as long as we won as a team, and everything worked out."

Julie Stroyne was a starter on the only other Peters Township team to win a PIAA title, in 2006. Palko and the Stroynes each had older sisters on that team, too.

The Indians should be set up for a run at another title because Julie Stroyne was the only senior in the starting lineup, and Emily Estet is the only other senior on the team.

They get to go out as champions, and for Julie Stroyne, she did it as Peters Township's top player during her senior year. And she had the leadership qualities to match.

"She definitely motivated me to want to win," Komer said. "I wanted to win for myself but also it was for her. This is her senior year and I'm a freshman and she won states when she was a freshman. That's something I thought about when that was all going on. She was a really good motivator for everyone, and Emily Estet also was a great member of the team."

"It's going to be quite different next year not having her," Palko said. "We needed her to keep us together."

While the team portion of Stroyne's high school tennis career is over, the entirety of her career representing Peters Township has one more weekend. She and Nixon will return to Hershey tomorrow. They will compete in the PIAA Class AAA doubles tournament after taking second place in the WPIAL tournament last month.

Other PG South-area athletes competing in the PIAA girls' tennis individual championships this weekend are WPIAL Class AA singles champion Tanya Timko of Chartiers-Houston and the South Park doubles team of Elise Carter and Tracy Gibson, who placed third in the WPIAL Class AA tournament.

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