PAC-10 singles championship resumes today after weekend rains

You’re the champion until some one beats you, or so the saying goes.

For Tyler Triolo, nobody had been able to do that so far this season.

On Friday,  Triolo set out on a quest to defend his Pioneer Athletic Conference singles title and repeat as the champion of one of Pennsylvania’s premiere tennis conferences.

Triolo, who is unbeaten this year in PAC-10 matches, received a first round bye aa the top-seeded player in the tourney, then took only forty minutes to dispatch Perkiomen Valley’s Sean Graver 6-0, 6-0 to advance to the quarter finals.

“I feel great right now,” said Triolo. “There are times when things go your way in tennis. I am in the middle of one of those times. I have been successful getting my first serve in over the past few days, which makes a huge difference.”

Fellow Rams teammates Gary Williams and Kevin Chang both won their opening round matches. Chang needing three sets to send Methacton’s Ryan Fields home 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.

Williams beat seventh-seeded Aaron Yuros from Pottsgrove in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 in the opening round, then followed that effort up with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Upper Perkiomen’s Cameron McDonald to earn a spot in the semi final.

“This is awesome,” said Williams. “I’m getting tired, but this is why we play. I have had good success with my serves and actually a lot of shots, it’s been one of those days, after yesterday, I’ll take it.” 

Meanwhile, Triolo stretched his unbeaten streak to 32 games without a loss by quickly jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first set in his quarterfinal match with Boyertown’s Brian Campo. Campo won three games in the match, but Triolo was able to advance to the final four with a 6-2, 6-1 victory.

“I wasn’t thrilled with the way I played, but the goal was to get to the final four, which I did,” said Triolo. “Sometimes the second and third round can be interesting because you may [encounter] someone you are not used to, which makes it a little tougher.”

Spring-Ford’s Kevin Chang drew the unenviable task of going up against last year’s runner up, number three-seeded Chris Chung from Boyertown. Chung defeated Chang, 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals, where he sent Methacton’s Keenan McAuliffe packing with a 6-0, 6-1 pasting, claiming a spot in Saturday’s final four.

The standout performance of the day had to be that of Gary Williams, who defeated Upper Perk’s Cameron McDonald in straight sets 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals, where he came up against Phoenixville’s number one player, Karlyn Small.

Small won the first set, 6-1, with relative ease, but Williams refused to go down without a fight.

After allowing Small to slide out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, Williams won four straight consecutive games, snagging a 5-4 lead with the serve in hand.

Small managed to break Williams's serve and tie the set at five games apiece, but following a forty–love win in game eleven, Williams was one game away from forcing a third set showdown.

Small was again able to break Williams’ serve, with help from a very questionable “out call that gave the game to Small instead of forcing a deuce situation, knotting the match at six before squeaking out a 7-3 tiebreaker win, advancing the Phantoms freshman to Saturday’s final four.

“It looked in, he called it out,” said Williams. “It sucks to lose in a situation like that. I made a lot of shot today, but also missed a few that cost me points, but overall I have been happy all day with the results, Tyler ha been great helping me get ready for my matches, it’s great having team mates like he and Kevin.”

Saturday's heavy rain postponed the conclusion of the tournament to today. Play resumes at 12:00pm at Perkiomen Valley High School.

Top eight seeds as Friday’s action commenced:

#1- Tyler Triolo – SF

 2- Karlyn Small - PHX

 3- Chris Chung – BOY

 4- Brett Levengood – OJR

 5- Sam Donahue – PV

 6- Keenan McAuliffe – MT

 7- Aaron Yuros - PG

 8- Nick Tonnessen – PJP2  

Today's  matchups: 12:00pm at Pekiomen Valley High School

M1.Tyler Triolo (SF) vs Nish Ravichandra (MT)

M2.Chris Chung (BOY) vs Karlyn Small (PX)

Winners will play for championship

Losers of M1 and M2 will play for third and fourth place 

Brian Campo (BOY), Doug Reeves (PX), Gary Williams (SF)

 and Keenan McAuliffe (MT) will battle for fifth medal and sixth place