Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex girls tennis tournament heads into finals on Friday

View full sizePhoto courtesy of Zara JakubasVoorhees senior tennis player Zara Jakubas.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK:

NAME

: Marielle McIntyre

SCHOOL

: Freedom High School

CLASS

: Senior

STATISTICS

: McIntyre went 3-0 last week, including wins over Jenna Peng of Parkland and Brittany Hodge of Northampton.

HONORABLE MENTION

: Sr. Brittany Hodge, Northampton; So. Sunny Jakubas, Voorhees; Sr. Danielle Sumner, North Hunterdon; Sr. Zara Jakubas, Voorhees; Sr. Paige Gurski, Bethlehem Catholic.

The

is heading into the championship matches on Friday, and The Express-Times area teams still are well represented.

Voorhees High School's top two singles players -- Sunny and

-- are still alive in the tournament, which will conclude at Courtside Racquet Club in Annandale.

The Jakubas sisters are no strangers to the H/W/S Tournament. Zara won her bracket in 2010 and Sunny finished fourth in her bracket.

Zara is set to face North Hunterdon's Lauren Dianora in the No. 2 final, and Sunny will oppose Natalie Savage of Warren Hills in the No. 1 singles title match.

North Hunterdon has two singles players and two doubles teams still competing.

Danielle Sumner will take on Sian Barry of Sparta in the No. 3 singles match. The Lions' Cynthia Vlad and Katherine Spencer will face Kezia Santos and Brittany Nielsen of Sparta at No. 1 doubles, and Liz Witte and Isabel Ennis will meet Mary Ilardi and Emily Morre of Pope John at No. 2 doubles.

The Lions are off to a 2-1 start.

Parkland is the lone unbeaten in the Lehigh Valley Conference, but Freedom, Northampton and Bethlehem Catholic are right behind with one loss apiece.

Northampton, which

, gets its shot at Parkland on Thursday. Also on Thursday, Freedom is at Becahi.

Parkland's only loss was to No. 1 ranked Moravian Academy in a non-league match.

last week. Carbone believes her team could have played better against the Patriots.

Top-ranked Moravian Academy has established itself as the class of the Colonial League.

The unbeaten

on Aug. 29. The rematch with the once-beaten Spartans is on Monday.

Bangor leads the North Division but has three league losses.