Shady Side run in jeopardy
Shady Side Academy has been a contender for the WPIAL Class AAA team title for so long that the team is completely unfazed by heading into the tournament as a favorite.
“We don’t really think of it that way because we just usually have a lot of depth on our team and our guys, even through seven, eight and nine, can go,” Shady Side Academy coach Tom Mercer said. “We have a lot of guys usually coming up and that’s what makes us really strong is our depth and we’ve had a lot of success out of that.”
Since 2010, Shady Side Academy has been to the WPIAL Class AAA team championship match every season and has won four titles, including the past three. The only team to defeat the Indians in that time was Mt. Lebanon, which won
its 18th crown overall in 2011.
This year, however, things are not going as smoothly as the regular season heads into its final week. Though Shady Side Academy will win the Section 3 title, it could have some issues in the team playoffs for the first time in quite a while.
Shady Side Academy sent two tandems to the WPIAL Class AAA doubles tournament, but failed to have either move into the state playoffs despite the fact the PIAA this year expanded the number of qualifiers from two to three for District 7 teams.
The Indians second-place section finisher, Derek Chen and Naveen Jain, were ousted in the first round, 108, by North Allegheny’s Andrew Xu and Eric Huang, while the Kann brothers, Cooper and Michael, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, were upset by No. 8 Miguel Ascencio and Ryan Farrell of Peters Township, 11-10 (75), in a second-round pro-set match.
With the early departure and their failure to push through to the semifinals, Shady Side Academy was officially ousted from the tournament. It also brought to an end a seven-year string of the Indians sending at least one representative to the state tournament.
From 2008-14, Shady Side Academy sent at least one representative in either singles or doubles to Hershey for the state championships, including each of the past four years in doubles with a pair of finals appearances the past two seasons. The Indians also boasted a state singles champion in Chris Mengel in 2010.
With that streak at an end, all Shady Side Academy has left to look forward to is the team tournament and continuing a couple of other current streaks. Not only have the Indians won the past three WPIAL titles, they have made three consecutive appearances in the state championship match and are the reigning PIAA team titlist.
With that kind of experience, Shady Side Academy might have enough history on its side to stretch its title streak to four.
“We haven’t played a lot of teams yet, but we have a lot of guys back from last year and we feel pretty good,” Mercer said. “We have two guys coming in that we feel are very good players and I think we’ll be all right.”