USC freshman tennis player advances to PIAA tournament

Upper St. Clair High School freshman Marlo Schiffman finished second in the WPIAL Class AAA tennis singles on Oct. 14, 2016. She now advances to the PIAA tournament Nov. 4-5 in Hershey.

Marlo was the first Upper St. Clair freshman to compete in the WPIAL finals. Entering sections, she was the No. 1 seed with a record of 13 – 1.

In the first two rounds of section championships, she defeated Canon McMillan’s Mia Graziani, 10-0, and Peters Township’s Alex Garcia, 10-0. In the semifinal round, she faced Ringgold’s Olivia Warner. 6-2, 6-0. In the section finals, Marlo was defeated by Anna Komer, of Peters Township, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7).

At the WPIAL championships Marlo was the No. 10 seed. She upset Hempfield’s Maura Sacket in the first round, 10-0, followed by North Allegheny’s Ashley Huang, 11-9. She defeated Baldwin’s Bethany Yauch in the WPIAL seminfinals, 6-0, 6-2, before falling to Norwin’s Maria Santilli, 2-6, 2-6.

In February 2016, Marlo was recognized with the 2015 Sportsmanship Award for Girls’ 14s age division from the United States Tennis Association Middle States section. She was selected from among 300 players.

Marlo is currently ranked No. 22 out of 228 for Middle States Girls 18s and is the highest ranking freshman.