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CLARKS SUMMIT — Alex DeRome made it past the third seed and the second seed in his surprise run to the District 2 Class 2A boys tennis singles final.
The top seed was a different story for the No. 2 singles player on the Dallas team that finished second in both the Wyoming Valley Conference and the District 2 team tournament.
Western Wayne’s Lenny Maiocco repeated his title by stopping DeRome, 6-0, 6-0, in Thursday’s championship match at the Birchwood Racquet Club.
“Every shot he hits is just perfect,” DeRome said. “There is no missed shot. Sure, you get a few unforced errors, but that just comes from him being super precise and being able to hit corners.
“He’s just a very strong player and really good athlete.”
Just being in the final was a source of pride for DeRome, who read the bracket and fully understood the expectations of him as a seventh seed going into Wednesday’s start of the tournament.
“I thought I was going to lose to (Wyoming Seminary’s) Will Ziegler in the quarterfinal,” DeRome said. “I was lucky enough to get past that. It was a heckuva match.
“I didn’t picture this.”
DeRome followed up the biggest upset of Wednesday’s action with another Thursday.
When action moved inside to Birchwood for the start of the semifinals Thursday, DeRome defeated third-seeded Logan Gregory from Holy Cross, 6-4, 6-1.
DeRome had reached the semifinals with Wednesday’s 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 7-5 upset of second-seeded Ziegler, the No. 1 singles player on Wyoming Seminary’s championship squad.
“I think (Wednesday), I really found my serve in the quarterfinals,” DeRome said. “I really started to hit that well.
“It was my ability to keep the ball in play in both the quarterfinal and semifinal that allowed me to prolong the match and beat them.”
After Maiocco jumped to a 3-0 lead, DeRome had his best chance while serving for the second time. DeRome took a 40-15 lead, but Maiocco won the last four points of the game and remained in control from there.
Dallas had the last two WVC players standing in DeRome and fellow semifinalist John Toussaint.
Maiocco knocked them both out Thursday. He topped Toussaint, 6-0, 6-1, in his first Thursday match.
The WVC did not have a player reach the second day in the District 2-4 Class 3A subregional, where Delaware Valley’s Tomas Reese also took the final, 6-0, 6-0, beating Rory Harris from Abington Heights.
Dallas coach Joe Pugliese said Toussaint and DeRome will team for one of the two Dallas entries in the District 2 doubles tournament, which has early rounds scheduled for Monday, beginning at 9 a.m. at Kirby Park. The semifinals and finals are set for Wednesday.
Dom Rizzo, coming off a 3-0 performance at third singles in the district team tournament, will probably wind up filling one of the other spots.