Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Dickson repeats as PIAA champ
Downingtown East senior wins title in three sets
HERSHEY >> Michael Dickson’s pathway to a second consecutive PIAA gold medal was a bumpy one, but Downingtown East’s finest was able to see it through, despite the best efforts to force a fold from a pair of Aces.
Dickson repeated as Class AAA state tennis champion Saturday at Hershey Racquet Club with victories over Lower Merion’s Matt Robinson in the title match and his teammate Matt Chen in the semifinals.
Dickson defeated Robinson 6-1, 6-3 for the gold medal. Earlier on Saturday, Dickson took out Chen 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in a tense semifinal.
It was not an easy afternoon of tennis, by any stretch, for Downingtown East’s defending champ. But championship pedigree, already chiseled, won out.
“I essentially played three finals here,” Dickson said. “I played Robby Shymansky (last year’s finalist against Dickson) in the quarters. I played Matt Chen in the district finals before, one he could have easily come out on top
“It’s a great honor (to repeat as champ). All the matches you go through every year get tougher and tougher and with being the state champ, they’re all coming out and giving 110 percent, so I always have to bring my best game. I played really well and I won.”
– Downingtown East’s Michael Dickson
in. I played Matt Robinson in the district finals this year. So I’m glad I was able to keep enough of my legs to come with the victory.
“It’s a great honor (to repeat as champ). All the matches you go through every year get tougher and tougher and with being the state champ, they’re all coming out and giving 110 percent, so I always have to bring my best game. I played really well and I won.”
Robinson, who will be heard from the next three seasons, fell behind 4-0 in the opening set after being broken twice and quickly surrendered the frame. He stayed on serve to get it to 3-all in the second set before being broken again to go down 3-4. Dickson pounced and won the final two games to close it out.
“I played him in the district final and lost in three sets,” Robinson said, “so I knew his game really well. I did not have it today. He just played better today and that was it.”
Robinson, a freshman who played No. 3 singles for Lower Merion’s state team tennis champions last week, beat Connor Bruce of Peters Township 6-0, 6-1 in the other semifinal.
It was Chen who nearly derailed Dickson’s repeat chances in the semis. The fourth and final seed out of District 1, Chen turned the tables on the defending champ with a blistering middle set, before Dickson regained control with a key service break early in the third (for a 2-1 lead) that he was able to ride out to victory.
“In the first set, I applied a bunch of pressure and he eventually erred,” Dickson said of Chen. “But in the second set when I did that, he didn’t err much. And Chen has a very strong game when he doesn’t make unforced errors. Then in the third, I got that one break and just rode it out.”
In doubles action, Upper Dublin’s Bryan Szyana and Danny Katz made it to the championship match in AAA, but lost to Joe and Matt DeMarco of Erie Cathedral Prep 6-2, 6-1. Szyana and Katz had defeated Nikil Gangoli and Sam Kesti from Great Valley 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the semifinals.
Strath Haven’s tandem of Xandy Hammitt and Clay Gaieski made it to Saturday, but dropped their semifinal match to the DeMarco brothers by a 6-1, 6-3 count.