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A year after having their run at district doubles ended by Wyoming Seminary, John Toussaint and Alex DeRome made the most of their second chance.
The top-seeded Dallas duo won the District 2 Class 2A boys tennis doubles championship on Thursday, beating the Sem team of Will Ziegler and Jerry Tang 7-6 (2), 6-4.
Last spring, Toussaint and DeRome were the No. 2 seed in the bracket but were knocked out in the semifinals by Ziegler and Duncan Lumina, the third-seeded tandem.
It capped off a strong stretch for the two Mountaineers, who both reached the semifinals of the District 2 Class 2A singles tournament last week. DeRome, the No. 7 seed in that field, had beaten No. 2 Ziegler head-to-head and then knocked off No. 3 Logan Gregory to reach the final round, where he brought home a silver medal.
This week it was gold for the Mounts. But the rematch with the Blue Knights almost didn’t happen.
Toussaint and DeRome opened Thursday’s action by dropping the first set of their semifinal matchup with Scranton Prep’s Matt Tressler and Harrison Oven. But they managed to rally to post a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory to keep their title dreams alive.
In the other semifinal, the second-seeded team of Ziegler and Tang knocked off Holy Cross’ Joseph Lennon and Gregory 6-2, 6-2.
But the season isn’t over yet for the Blue Knights, who won the District 2 team title and are still alive for a state championship.
Wyoming Seminary is headed to the midstate today to take on District 7 champ Indiana at 11 a.m. at Hershey Racquet Club. Ziegler and Tang are in line to compete in the No. 1 and No. 2 singles slots, repsectively. Rounak Lele was at No. 3 singles while Jake Showmaker/Wolfgang Fable and Keefer Wu/Ferdi Leube competed in doubles during the Knights’ opening round win over Central Columbia.
A win today would put Wyoming Seminary into Saturday morning’s semfinals, with the state championship scheduled for that afternoon, also in Hershey.
In the District 2 Class 3A doubles bracket, the Scranton duo of Harsh Patel and Mit Patel won the title with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over top-seeded Amani Tran and Liam Ferry of Williamsport.
The Knights duo, seeded second, didn’t drop a set in the tournament and beat Abington Heights’ Adam Vale and Jake Rosenstein 6-2, 6-0 in the semifinals.
Tran and Ferry earned a 6-3, 6-1 win over Delaware Valley’s Pete Wilson and Matt Lombardo in the other semifinal.