Girls' tennis: Northern Lebanon's Maja Andersson bound for district semis

HERSHEY >> Maja Andersson may still not completely get what this is all about, but on the court, that hardly matters.

The Northern Lebanon exchange student from Denmark moved into Monday's District 3 Class AA singles semifinals with a pair of victories in Saturday's opening two rounds at Hershey Racquet Club.

Andersson will face Lenea Riehl of Pequea Valley in Monday's AA semifinal, at noon, back at HRC. Berks Catholic's Lin Robertson will play Trinity's Katherine Long in the other match-up.

Andersson, the No. 2 seed in the bracket, defeated Elco's Sydney Nye 6-1, 6-1 in the AA quarterfinals – the lone all-Lebanon County match of the day – to reach the semis.

It was the fourth time this season that Andersson and Nye have met, and the fourth time Northern Lebanon's ace came out on top.

"It's been a good day for me," Andersson said. "I've had a lot fun. Even though I was the last one to play today."

Andersson's first-round match, a 6-3, 6-1 win over Hamburg's Mel Haas, was the final first-rounder of the afternoon to hit the court.

The whole experience of playing scholastic tennis has been an interesting one for Andersson, who admitted to being a bit foggy on the details for a while.

"I'm in a club (in Denmark) because we don't have high school sports there," she said. "It took a long time to figure it out. When I started, I didn't even know what county it was."

With her superior reach, Andersson was content to slug it out on the baseline with Nye. She took control of the match fairly early and saw it through in workmanlike fashion.

"I've played Maja in regular season, county, leagues and now districts," Nye said, "and I still haven't quite figured it out. I've won games off her but I haven't won quite yet. She's strong, she knows what to do. Had me running everywhere. She can get to everything. What you think is a winner, she gets it back. She's a strong backboard."

Elsewhere, Annville-Cleona's Alicia Hitz lost her AA first-rounder to Wyomissing's Alexa Jadic 6-3, 7-5, in a match that featured a number of uncharacteristic unforced errors by Hitz.

Cedar Crest's Great Strunk, the area's lone AAA singles entrant, drew No. 2 seed Ali Snyder of Exeter for her opening round match. Snyder prevailed 6-1, 6-1 in roughly 40 minutes.

Sammi Snyder of Exeter, AAA's top seed, will face Lampeter-Strasburg's Taylor Capoferri in one Monday semifinal; Central York's Yvonne Peters-Washington will play Ali Snyder in the other.