WINNER, WINNER
Two postseason tournaments, and two wins for Wyomissing junior Andre Fick.
The reigning Berks County champ on Monday served, volleyed and slammed his way to the District 3-AA singles championship, eliminating Elco’s Adam Bahney 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinals before topping Lancaster Country Day’s Blaise Casselbury 7-5, 6-4 for gold at Hershey Racquet Club.
Fink finished third in the district tourney the last two years; Casselbury earned a runner-up finish for the second year in a row.
Fink, Casselbury and Bahney, who came back to beat Lancaster Country Day’s Sebastian Pena 6-1, 6-4 in the third-place match, earned spots in the PIAA tourney, set for May 23-24 back at Hershey Racquet Club.
A LITTLE REVENGE
Casselbury staved off a couple of match points and knocked off Fick in last year’s PIAA-AA state semifinals.
Fick, flashing a serious power game and quick feet to cover the court, got some payback on Monday, breaking Casselbury to win the first set 7-5.
In the second set, Fick said his blistering winner down the line, up 5-3 and 15-love, gave him the momentum and the confidence to close out the title match.
Earlier, against Bahney in the semifinals, Fick outslugged Elco’s junior, as the two exchanged mammoth forehands and backhands. In the end, Fick out-powered Bahney.
NET POINTS
Fick, who is undefeated this season, topped Exeter’s Nolan Perugini in the Berks County finals. … Perugini ended up finishing fourth — without a PIAA bid — in the Class AAA bracket; he fell to Warwick’s Tony Deimler in the third-place match Monday. … In his freshman year, Fick reached the state quarterfinals, before falling to Casselbury in last year’s PIAA final four. … Casselbury fell to Wyomissing’s Ricardo Saad in last year’s district finale; Saad was the champ in 2012 and 2013. Fick's win give Wyo three Class AA singles champs in a row. … Bahney is the reigning L-L Class AA doubles champ; he and classmate Galen McNaughton teamed up for that crown last week. … Bahney won the L-L Class AA singles title in 2013.
QUOTABLE
Wyomissing’s Andre Fick — “My goal from the start of the season was to make it to the state final and hopefully win that gold. But this was certainly a great win because Blaise is such a great player. So this is the next step toward states. … I felt really good from the baseline. I was able to place the ball where I wanted it with the right spin and the right slice from the baseline. I wanted to stay consistent on the baseline and hopefully (Casselbury) would make some errors.”
Elco’s Adam Bahney — “I’m really satisfied. This was my goal all along; to go deep in districts and make states. That was my goal and I did it.”