Peluso collecting titles
Franca Peluso is one of the few tennis players to claim she has won six section championships in her career.
"She's dominant in the section because, right now, she's moving the ball extremely well," Greensburg Central Catholic coach Molly Campi said. "She is a very focused player, which is one of her strengths, and she doesn't give up."
Believe it or not, however, Peluso would like to avoid even the opportunity for her seventh.
Peluso has been the most dominant tennis player in Section 1-AA for the last four years and has won the section singles title every season, including this one. She has also captured doubles titles in both her sophomore and junior seasons, but to play for a seventh overall title would mean that she had failed in her attempt to finish in the top three in the WPIAL Class AA singles championships today and Tuesday at Hempfield.
A top-three finish would lock up a spot in the state singles championships, and, since a player can participate in either singles or doubles at the PIAA level, Peluso would be ineligible to participate for the section doubles championship.
"I'd really like to make it for singles, because I think I have the potential to do it," Peluso said. "I think this year I've learned to play a lot smarter. I don't always go for the big shot, but I go for the right shot."
Peluso came onto the scene in 2003, when she captured her first section title then lost a 10-3 pro-set match to Patty Kaczmarek of Canevin in the opening round of the WPIAL singles championships.
Her sophomore year brought another section singles championship and another first-round loss to Kaczmarek, this time a 10-6 defeat.
That was also the year Peluso won her first doubles championship, but that became another disappointment when Neshannock handed the Greensburg Central Catholic twosome a 10-8 loss.
Last season, however, Peluso finally won a round in the WPIAL tournament before she fell in the semifinals, but that was only a precursor for what was to come.
When she moved to doubles, she and teammate Courtney Hawk rolled all the way to the WPIAL championship match, where they lost a 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 heartbreaker to Meghan Stubblefield and Katie Maher of Canevin.
That second-place finish, however, was enough to send Peluso to Hershey Racquet Club for the first time as a state finalist. Though she and Hawk were knocked out in the first round, it was an experience that could help her when the WPIAL championships open today at 1 p.m.
"I learned that I could keep up with those girls," Peluso said. "The competition is really great ... and I was really nervous going to Hershey last year, but this year I know I can keep up with those girls, so that's a positive."
That confidence could be a deciding factor in whether she ends her run of section titles at six or comes back in a couple of weeks for a shot at her seventh.
"I think, to get to the state level, she has to continue working on her focus and her groundstrokes," Campi said. "Hopefully, she can just get one more round. That's what we're hoping."
Additional Information:
Complete coverage
var site='PAGRE' var section='SPORTS'
- Tennis Stories
- Top Sports Stories
- ALL TOP SPORTS STORIES
Top Sports
NFL Team-by-Team
NFL Game Stories
MLB | NHL
NASCAR | Tennis
College Football
Sports Gallery
News | Living
Business
