Clary, Tull advance to district tennis semis

There will be an all-Lebanon County semifinal when the District 3 3A Tennis Championships resume on Saturday afternoon at Hershey Racquet Club.

Two freshmen, Palmyra's Ben Clary and Cedar Crest's Dylan Tull, saw to that on Friday, sewing up semifinal spots with a pair of straight sets victories, respectively.

Entering the event as the No. 3 and 4 seeds, respectively, Clary and Tull each moved up a spot when No.2 seed Jack Muraika of Cedar Crest was forced to withdraw due to injury. That moved Clary and Tull up a notch and into the same half of the bracket.

Clary, the Mid-Penn Conference champ, did his part to set up the all-county matchup by topping Hunter Jones of Dallastown, 6-3, 6-3, in the first round, then took care of Jack Hessinger of Hempfield by a 6-2, 6-3 count to advance to the semis.

Tull's path to the semifinals began with a 6-1, 6-2 rout of Max Kluger of Cumberland Valley in the first round, and was followed by a 6-2, 6-1 defeat of Reading's Joel Castillo in the second.

Tull and Clary will meet at 1 p.m. Saturday, while top-seeded Holden Koons of Dallastown faces Dante Falcucci of Hershey in the other semi. The championship and third place matches will follow.

Also on Friday, Elco's Mason Bennetch fell in the first round of the 2A singles draw, to Brett Gill of Littlestown by a 6-4, 6-4 score.