TENNIS Canfield's Pietro, Boardman's Barth advance

All four seeds in Division II singles advanced to the semifinals.
MASSILLON -- Two local players will meet in the quarterfinals of the Division I boys singles sectional tennis tournament Saturday at Massillon Jackson Middle School.
Thomas Barth of Boardman, the second seed, won twice Thursday and will tangle with unseeded Matt Pietro of Canfield.
Barth beat Chris Irwin of Green 6-1, 6-4, then defeated Carl Blaine of Canton McKinley 6-0, 6-0.
Pietro turned back John Mehler of Uniontown Lake 6-0, 6-2, then eliminated Eric Senedak of Austintown Fitch 6-1, 6-1 and ousted Eric Hendricks of North Canton Hoover 6-2, 6-3.
Senedak downed Nick Grant of Canton Timken 6-0, 6-0 in the first round.
Kuppler wins
Top-seeded Chris Kuppler of Canfield won twice after receiving a first-round bye and will compete Saturday in the quarterfinals.
Kuppler knocked off Lonnie Hanlon of Akron Hoban 6-0, 6-1, then defeated Josh Gressel of Massillon Perry 6-0, 6-0.
Boardman's Christopher Swanson and Kevin Weiser each won twice before falling.
Swanson was a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Matt Byrd of Massillon and took a 7-5, 6-2 match from Chris Frazzini of Fitch.
Ty Neading of Canton McKinley beat Swanson 6-2, 6-4.
Weiser defeated Matt Lysiak of Lake 6-0, 6-3 and Joe Crewes of Akron Ellet 6-1, 6-3.
Casey Eck of Hoover beat Weiser 6-1, 6-0 in the round of 16.
Frazzini advanced out of the first round with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Justin Rasile of Alliance.
Ryan Mullins of Fitch and Matt Sulick of Canfield both lost in the first round.
In doubles competition, Canfield qualified two unseeded teams to the quarterfinals.
Matt Waigend and Kevin Kuppler beat Perry's Chris Wells and Luke Kolic 6-1, 6-3 before stopping Canton McKinley's Drew Pelger and Mo Neading 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. The Cardinals will face Green's Shawn Becher and Dave Altier.
Canfield's other team, Brent Hunsicker and Justin Boehm, advanced by defeating Canton GlenOak's Drew Roholt and Beau Vincent 6-2, 6-3 and Lake's Luke Leppla and Jeremy Duerr 6-1, 6-4. The Cardinals will next play Wooster's Bart Schenck and A.J. Wilson.
The Boardman team of Ryan Ingram and Josh Winters defeated Fitch's Chris Carach and Tim Bestic 6-0, 6-1 in the first round before losing to Wooster.
Suffering losses in their first matches were Fitch's Carlos Becerra and Jason Latimer and Boardman's Matthew Finamore and Christopher Leson.
Div. II
The top four seeds in the Div. II boys sectional tennis tournament advanced to Saturday's semifinals.
Kelton Person of Ursuline, Tom Page of West Branch and Richard Baroff and Sam Ballas of Liberty, the top four seeds, respectively, each won three matches during singles competition Thursday.
The tournament was held at three different sites -- Boardman High School, Boardman Tennis Center and Liberty Racquet Club -- because of poor weather conditions.
On Saturday, Person will play Ballas, while Baroff will face Page. The four players already have advanced to next week's district tournament at Massillon Jackson.
Person advanced to the semifinals with wins over Poland's Rob Lovell (6-2, 6-0), Ashtabula Edgewood's Matt Liszewski (6-1, 6-1) and Liberty's Gene Huang (6-3, 7-5).
Ballas moved on with wins over Warren JFK's Justin Spangler (6-1, 6-1), Conneaut's Jennifer Sturtevant (6-1, 6-1) and Poland's Don Somers (6-3, 6-0).
Baroff rolled past Jefferson's Josh Patterson (6-1, 6-1), Ursuline's Joe Tablack (6-1, 6-1) and Poland's Fred Romeo (6-1, 6-1).
Page beat Marlington's Alex Lindeman (6-0, 6-0), Ursuline's David Rhodes (6-0, 6-3) and Jefferson's Alex Czayka (6-2, 2-6, 6-4).
Doubles
In the doubles competition, the top three seeds advanced to the semifinals.
Top-seeded Brian Meek and Donald Person of Ursuline ousted Liberty's Josh Kaback and Tamoor Rashid (6-1, 6-0) and East Palestine's Matt Satterfield and Nathan Bowers (6-0, 6-0).
Meek and Person will face unseeded Ben Childs and Ryan Caruso of Jefferson in the semifinals.
Second-seeded Luke Duchek and Jon Funk of Poland advanced by defeating Warren JFK's Jimmy Williams and Jeff Musick (6-0, 6-2) and Conneaut's Randall Blades and Vince Mucci (6-1, 6-1).
Duchek and Funk are paired in the semifinals against third-seeded Chris Conese and Mike Kerrigan of Cardinal Mooney.
Conese and Kerrigan advanced with wins over United's Drew Hanny and Ryan Sluss (6-0, 6-0) and Liberty's Jon Sung and Ryan Baroff (6-1, 6-1).
The fourth seeds, David Ceglia and Anthony Antenucci of Warren JFK, were beaten by Cardinal Mooney's Pat Walker and Mike Lucci.