DUBOIS — The field has been narrowed to two.
On a day that felt much more appropriate for boys tennis action than many of their match days thus far have felt this season, 14 boys tennis players from across District 9 gathered at the DuBois Area High School courts on Monday afternoon to vie for the D-9 AA Singles Championships title — or at least for a spot in the final.
As is typically the case with the tournament, Monday’s Day 1 activities were only scheduled to include the first round, second round and semis, with the championships originally scheduled for today. That schedule has been adjusted, though.
With the need for the team tournament to be completed by the end of the week — and with the forecast not looking so promising as the week progresses — the decision was made to move the team semifinals (originally set for Wednesday) to today. The remainder of the postseason schedule will be filled in as decided.
Regardless, Monday’s results are officially in the books, and those who remained in the running for the singles title at day’s end were top-seeded sophomore Gavin Henry of St. Marys — recently named the District 9 Central League MVP — and Bradford’s Cooper Haight.
Henry’s day began with a bye through to the second round, where he met Elk County Catholic junior Julian Lanzel, who had advanced through Round 1 by besting DuBois Central Catholic’s Isaac Barber 10-4.
Henry dispatched of Lanzel by a 10-2 margin, then met Punxsy senior Rocco Richardson in the semifinals. Henry won that match, which switched to best-of-three sets scoring, 6-1, 6-2, to secure his spot in the finals.
“Gavin was very focused right from the warm-up,” St. Marys Coach Tim Henry said. “He decided to go into lock down mode and play high-percentage, aggressive tennis. When he does this and can keep his focus the entire tournament like he did, it makes for a tough ask to beat him. Great command of himself mentally, and the game too. Fun to watch when he is in full flight.”
Haight’s road to the final started with a 10-4 victory over Brockway’s Dominic Durle in the first round and continued with another win by the same margin over Abe Santos of Punxsy in the quarters. He then defeated St. Marys’ second participant, Merrick Leckey, 6-4 and 6-3 to advance to the final.
Richardsons’ trek to the semis for the Chucks began with a 10-4 victory over Dorian Liberatori of Clearfield. Then, in the quarters, he bested Mason Close of Bradford by a 10-7 margin.
Leckey’s path was similar, as he won his first-round match against Clearfield’s Aaron Williams 10-4 — a popular score for the day — then won by the same margin over DCC’s Matthew Schoo (who had earned a bye through the first round).
“Dutch tennis did well at the tournament,” Coach Henry said. “Merrick gave 100 percent to beat the two seed from DCC, but ran out of gas in the semifinal. Two matches that showed his growth as a tennis player.”
Today’s schedule will now include only the team semifinals — DCC at St. Marys and Elk County Catholic at Bradford — with both scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.