Chambersburg’s Leah Wadel, left, and Charley Kalathas, right, finished second in the District 3 Class 3A girls tennis doubles tournament last weekend at Hershey Racquet Club. In the middle is Trojan coach Niko Mucci (photo courtesy of CASHS).

HERSHEY — The Chambersburg duo of Leah Wadel and Charley Kalathas had a wildly successful weekend at the District 3 Class 3A girls tennis championships.

The Trojan team knocked off the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds on their way to a second-place finish in the district doubles tournament at Hershey Racquet Club.

The two seniors will return to that same venue on Friday, Nov. 6, at 2 p.m. for the first round of the PIAA Championships, where they will meet the District 2 champs, Amishi Amit and Sammy Rosenstein of Abington Heights, in the first round.

“We’re not even sure when’s the last time Chambersburg had any players qualify for states (in tennis),” Trojan coach Niko Mucci said. “They just went on an unbelieveable run. They were like monsters out there, playing very aggressively.”

The Chambersburg team began their district tournament on Friday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Dallastown’s Saisha Jindal and Katie Schiavone.

Mucci said, “I wasn’t sure they could get past Dallastown, because one of their girls was in the singles tournament.”

Later that day, they faced the No. 1 seed, Wilson’s Emily Tippin and Lucy Lamparella. The Trojans won the first set, 6-2, but the Bulldogs evened it up with a 6-3 win. In the third set, Wadel and Kalathas collected a 6-2 victory.

“When you get to this level in doubles, usually the team that gets to the net most often wins,” Mucci said. “The girls were so much more aggressive than they had been.”

On Saturday, in the semifinals, the Chambersburg team ousted Manheim Township’s No. 4-seeded Abby Martin and Leighanne Chiong, 6-4 and 7-6 (3).

Mucci said, “Leah was really strong at the net. She was hitting shots on the run, and because the shots she was hitting were coming hard, her shots were even stronger. And then teams started lobbing her so she couldn’t get it, and Charley was at the back line just really smacking her returns.”

Unfortunately, they met Central Dauphin’s Emma Teunissen and Katie Gergal in the final and suffered a 6-3, 6-1 defeat.

“In Mid Penns, we played fine,” Mucci said, “but we lost to that CD team in oour first match. But they fought back to get to districts, although that wasn’t indicative of the kind of run they had at districts.

“We’re not like most of the schools at districts. We don’t have a feeder program; we don’t have girls taking lessons and we don’t have any indoor courts around here. But these girls have played in the program since they were freshmen and it’s great to see us succeed at this level.”