PENN TWP — The rain held off. The matches went on — for the 20th consecutive year.

But the 2015 West Penn Inter-Club Mixed Doubles Junior Tennis Team Championships may have run in its current format for the final time Thursday at Butler Country Club.

“Junior tennis has really evolved toward the younger kids,” BCC tennis pro Whitney Snyder said. “We may have to revisit the structure of this event.

“I love the way we've been doing it (teams of 18-under and 12-under mixed doubles) because it rewards older and younger kids alike and brings them all together. We've had this format for years, but I want to promote the sport of tennis any way I can.

“If that means changing this event to two 12-under mixed doubles per team, we'll look at that,” Snyder added.

Five youth tennis organizations — the fewest in the event's history — participated Thursday. There were 30 organizations invited.

Lakevue Athletic Club of Valencia won with nine points. Mars resident Zach Green and Kristin Miller comprised Lakevue's 18-under doubles unit while Paul Olson of Mars and Rebecca Peng were the 12-under duo. Olson and Peng did not lose a match all day.

“We've got about 40 kids in our junior tennis program,” Lakevue pro Randy Bell said. “Roughly half are under 13 and the rest are around the age of 15.

“The bulk of our players don't play another sport, but the older kids tend to do clinics or take private lessons in the summer rather than stay with us.”

Butler Junior Tennis and Treesdale tied for second. The Butler 18-under duo of Savannah Turner and Nic Condon won all of its matches on the day. Both have played in the event before.

“I was here about three years ago,” Turner said. “It's fun because you get to meet new people, play against different kids in a format we're not used to. Hopefully, you make new friends.”

Condon said he and Turner “are both 15 and I think we're the oldest players here.

“It's a unique format (playing every other team). It's all about finding momentum by learning and adapting to the person you're playing with. The sooner you learn to function as a team, the better you'll do.”

BJT pro Jonathan Condon said Butler Junior Tennis has 90 members — at least 60 being 13 or younger.

“We just had an older crop of kids move through, so our organization is rebuilding a bit,” he said. “We put fliers up in the schools trying to get kids to sign up and we've got a fresh new group of younger kids.

Ninety is the most we've had in a few years.”

Snyder said Butler Country Club's youth tennis program only has 33 kids this year. BCC had as many as 67 in 2008.

“I think we're losing older kids to team-related activities like lacrosse and soccer in the summer,” Snyder said. “Almost all of our kids are younger now. We entered a 13 and 12-year-old in the 18-under division today.”

Sewickley Area was the only tennis program outside of the Butler County area to participate in this year's West Penn Inter-Club event. Christi Hays, Sewickley's pro, used to bring a contingent from Edgewood when she taught tennis there.

“I don't understand why more organizations don't do this,” Hays said. “Whitney does a tremendous job with this event. He promotes mixed doubles, effort, sportsmanship, all of the right things.

“Maybe the tennis pros don't want to give up a day to come out here. It's a shame. They don't know what they're missing.”

BCC's Amelia Walls and Treesdale's Jonny Miles received the Extra Effort Award for the day. Sportsmanship awards went to Mikayla Turner of Butler Junior Tennis and Jack Bresch of Sewickley.

“The kids out here respected each other, learned each other's names and enjoyed the competition,” Snyder said. “That's what this is about. And the boys and girls teaming up makes everybody want to do well.

“I have to thank Butler Country Club for the support it's given this event for the past 20 years.”

Nic Condon described the day as “fun competition.”

“You're competing, but in a way, you're not,” he said. “We were all having fun at the same time ... I guess you can have it both ways.”