Tennis: Phantoms Claim Second and Fifth at PAC-10 Doubles

PERKIOMEN-Phoenixville’s Karlyn Small has had a busy freshman year.

With tournaments galore to start the season, a near miss at a PAC-10 team title, and second place in the Pioneer Athletic Conference singles tournament, he's made the rounds and an impact on the conference. Most recently, the Phantoms' young gun finished runner-up in the PIAA District One class AA championship.

On Friday, another chapter was added as Small teamed up with senior John McInally on a quest to claim the PAC-10 doubles championship held at Perkiomen Valley High School. Small and McInally were there along with the Phoenixville duo of Doug Reeves and Chris Walsh.

In the second round, Small and McInally defeated Owen J. Roberts No. 2 team of Jon Bryant and Jon Dempsey in straight sets 6-1, 6-1. Meanwhile Reeves and Walsh beat up on Upper Perkiomen’s No. 1 team of Parker Shillington and Cameron McDonald to the tune of a 6-0, 6-0 thumping to advance in the bracket.

“It’s different playing with Chris," said Reeves, who is usually the Phantoms No. 2 singles player. “It was fun though. We really played and communicated pretty well and it was great to win a match 12-0.”

The Phantoms No. 2 team ran into a buzz saw in the third round as they dropped the match to Methacton’s No. 2 team of Nish Ravichandra and Ryan Fields, who ended up claiming the bronze medal, after winning the first set 6-1. The Warriors duo battled back to win the second set 7-6 in a tiebreaker then escaped with a 6-4 win in the deciding set, sending the Phantoms into the consolation bracket, where they wound up winning fifth place.

While the No. 2 team took fifth, the No. 1 team got adjusted to the format.

“It has been a lot of fun playing with John,” said Small. “He is such a good doubles player. He makes it easy to step in and play doubles. There are some adjustments that I have to make to play this format, but the advantages far outweigh the adjustments.”

Small and McInally seemed well “adjusted” as they laid waste to the championship hopes of Boyertown’s No. 1 paring of Chris Chung and Jordan Fries by a 6-2, 6-1 straight set whooping, propelling the duo into Saturday’s final four.

“The hard part about Friday was waiting around all day to play,” said McInally. “We got here around noon and didn’t get on the court until around four. It sucked. Playing with Karlyn was a lot of fun I think we will do well next week at districts.”

Next up for McInally and Small was the daunting task of facing back-to-back Spring–Ford teams as Saturday’s semi-final began.

The Phantoms made quick work of the Rams No. 2 pairing as they won in straight sets 6-1, 6-1 over Kyle Emerson and Lewis Cooper, the only true doubles pairing to make it to the elite four teams, to advance to the championship match where they would face the duo of Tyler Triolo and Blake Emerson.

In the first set, Small and McInally had a brief 2-1 game lead on the Rams, but after having their service broke on two consecutive occasions found themselves trailing 5-3.

After eventually dropping the first set 6-4, the Phantoms lost four out of five in the second set to mimic the score of the first set 6-4, finishing as the runner up in a field of 20 squads.

“I am very proud of the way we played,” Small said. “Of course I would rather have finished first, but runner up gets us into districts and a silver medal. I am already looking forward to next week. It ought to be a challenge,”