A visit with WPIAL tennis champion Devyn Campbell


Beaver's Devyn Campbell (left) with doubles teammate Anna Blum
Background Info: Very few tennis players took the route to the PIAA championships the same way as the senior from Beaver Area. As a freshman Campbell paired with Moriah Bridges to make it through to the WPIAL semifinals where they were upset by eventual champions and seventh-seeded Zoe Bojalad and Emily Kraus of Quaker Valley. They then won the consolation match to take the WPIAL’s third-and final slot in the PIAA championships in Hershey. It wasn’t a one-off. She and Sydni Lewis were the top seed in 2016 and lost in the semifinals before rebounding to once again take third in the WPIAL. And it happened to the twosome again last season. There was a difference. Campbell and Lewis made it to the championship match at Hershey Racquet Club. It was the first time she had ever played in a final. That is until this year when, after four tries, she was crowned a WPIAL Class 2A doubles champion when she and Anna Blum knocked off Greensburg Salem’s Kasey Storkel and Abby Jo Stull, 6-1, 6-4, to win her first individual championship. She was also the No. 3 singles player in 2015 and 2016 when the Bobcats took home WPIAL team titles in 2015 and 2016.

Devyn Campbell's WPIAL impressions.
"It’s been so fun and everything has been so different because team and singles and doubles are so different. I don’t think anyone except people in the tennis world understand that they are all three different things. We won the WPIAL twice and it was fun, but they’re different and it’s fun changing it up every time."

Devyn Campbell's thoughts on winning a WPIAL team title as compared to a WPIAL individual crown.
"I think the biggest difference from playing with a team is, when you’re playing doubles it’s more focused on you did the work and you your partner got it together, where for the team everybody is more like ‘you did such a good job,’ but someone could lose the whole time and no one will ever know because not everyone has to win for you to win a team title."