Golden afternoon
Top-seed from South Fayette beats Shady Side’s Gramley in 3A
South Fayette, North Catholic players earn WPIAL tennis titles.
Colin Gramley was playing from behind against South Fayette junior Jacob Patterson almost from the moment they walked onto the court at North Allegheny.
“As soon as we got out there, the wind was blowing,” Gramley said. “I wasn’t feeling great right off the start.”
Things improved a bit as the match wore on, but not enough for the Shady Side Academy senior to pull off the upset as the topseeded Patterson pulled out a 7-5, 6-3 victory to capture the WPIAL Class 3A singles title.
“It’s definitely big because, two years ago I got fourth place and lost [the consolation match] in the third set and that’s when they took three to states, so that was devastating,” Patterson said. “It’s nice to go from fourth to first.”
Patterson, the No. 3 junior in the state, was barely pushed in his three matches to get to the final
and appeared he would have an easy time with the Denison recruit as well. He jumped all over Gramley in the first set and had a 5-1 lead before the two-time WPIAL doubles champion managed to battle back.
“From there, I just told myself, you’re down 5-1, this set might be over and you’ve got nothing to lose,” Gramley said. “I started to get my rhythm a little bit, breaking serves, started putting more balls in play and started serving better, so I started to make a run.”
Though Gramley got back into it, Patterson recovered and pulled out the first set to put him in a huge hole.
“Being up 5-1 in the first set and losing that lead, I really just had to focus on what I was doing wrong and really rebound,” Patterson said. “I think I was just going for too much and I just got nervous because it was the finals and there were a couple games where I lost the lead and I just had to make sure I kept the ball on the court and he was making more mistakes if I was putting pressure on him.”
Class 2A
Michael Sirianni had an advantage no other player in the WPIAL has had taking on North Catholic junior Nicolas Scheller. He had a book on him. That’s what happens when your twin brother played your opponent the day before in the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals.
Unfortunately it didn’t help as Scheller altered his tactics substantially from the semifinals and attacked the net at every opportunity against the Quaker Valley junior. Though he mis-hit more balls than he would have liked, the Albuquerque transplant pulled out a 6-1, 6-1 victory to win his first title for his new school.
“It’s definitely a good thing, coming back to tennis and coming into this, it’s a really good thing,” Scheller said. “I’m always about playing my game and staying focused and doing what I do.”