Correction/Clarification: (Published April 23, 2001) . A photo Saturday of Jim Stillwagon of Sewickley Academy, the WPIAL Class AA runner-up in tennis, was misidentified as John Houghton of Quaker Valley, who won the Class AA tennis title.
Players in the WPIAL tennis championships usually wear collared shirts with their school names on the chest. Yesterday, North Allegheny's Jake Jopling wore a blue Nike polo shirt without a school name.
A fashion statement? Nah. For Jopling, it's simply a winning statement.
"I've never lost a final match wearing this shirt," Jopling said.
Jopling wore the look of WPIAL champion as he defeated Pine-Richland's Brett Warren, 6-1, 6-3, in the Class AAA final at the Oxford Athletic Club in Wexford.
"I bought this shirt about a year ago," Jopling said. "I've made it to the final match of tournaments four times since then and I've never lost in this shirt."
Jopling wears the shirt only in championship matches. But his game also had something to do with this title.
"This isn't the best I've played in my life, but I played pretty well," Jopling said. "I had one of my best days with service returns. But his serve was a little off, too."
Warren had trouble getting his first serve in throughout the match and that proved costly.
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The shirt was the difference for North Allegheny's Jake Jopling in winning the WPIAL Class AAA championship. (Tony Tye, Post-Gazette) | |
"I tried everything to get it in," Warren said. "I think I had 20 first serves that I didn't get in. Other than that, I hit the ball pretty well. But he was on his game and I wasn't. Basically, that was the story."
Warren, a junior, won the WPIAL Class AA championship last year but moved up to Class AAA this season. This was Jopling's fourth time in the Class AAA tournament. He lost in the quarterfinals as a freshman and sophomore and lost in the semifinals last season.
He won three matches Thursday, including a semifinal victory against Mt. Lebanon's John Nichols, 6-2, 6-4. Nichols was the tournament's No. 1 seed.
"I got about a half-hour massage before my match with John because my neck was bothering me. That really helped," Jopling said. "I didn't get one today."
He didn't need it.
"I kind of considered myself the underdog coming into this because I was the No. 4 seed," Jopling said.
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Class AA runner-up Jim Stillwagon. (Tony Tye, Post-Gazette) | |
Jopling and Warren advanced to the PIAA championships May 25-26 at Penn State. Central Catholic's Chris McCoy also qualified for the PIAA tournament, beating Nichols, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, in the consolation match.
Houghton wins Class AA
Quaker Valley's John Houghton and Sewickley Academy's Jim Stillwagon often practice together at the Parkway Tennis Academy in Forest Hills. Houghton didn't take it easy on his practice partner yesterday.
Houghton downed Stillwagon, 6-2, 6-0, to win the WPIAL Class AA championship at the Oxford Athletic Club.
"It was really strange playing against him," Houghton said. "Actually, I was a little more nervous than usual, playing against someone I knew well."
A sophomore, Houghton lost in last year's Class AA final to Warren.
Stillwagon jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first set, but it was all Houghton from there. He didn't lose a game the rest of the way.
"I think I really took the offensive after the first two games," Houghton said. "I started to hit the ball harder and I guess he wasn't really ready for my power. I think I took him out of his game by hitting the ball hard."
Stillwagon said: "I played well for the first four or five games. But I have to hand it to him. That second set, I didn't see too many shots I could hit."
Houghton and Stillwagon will be in the PIAA tournament. Beaver's Eric Kaluza also qualified for the PIAA championships, beating New Brighton's Luis Trujillo, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2), in the consolation match.
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