Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 4, 1993 TAG: 9306040461
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Spartans defeated Bruton 6-3 Thursday for the Group AA boys' crown, ending years of frustration for veteran coach Dave Petersen, who had turned out three state runner-up squads. In reaching the finals, Salem had won two 5-4 matches thanks to its doubles' teams.
The Spartans dominated the singles competition with a 6-0 sweep and Petersen, in a gesture sure to endear him to any reserve usually left out of crucial state tournaments, permitted his sub doubles' teams to complete the match.
This is only the third state championship in the school's history. Salem won a Group AAA golf title when it was in the Roanoke Valley District and three years ago took the Group AA softball crown.
In the individual singles, Blacksburg's Marek Pfiel had to rally to defeat Harrisonburg's Brandon Davis. Pfiel dropped the first set to 7-6 (7-2), suffered two service breaks in the second set and trailed 3-0.
Then Pfiel regained his form, swept the next 10 games and went on to take the last two sets 6-3, 6-1 for the title.
That assured a Timesland sweep of Group AA tennis. Pfiel and Robert Gibb beat Salem's David Arnold and Eddel Veloso for the doubles title 6-2, 6-4. Pfiel and Gibb finished the season 15-0.
Pfiel was probably the busiest player in the state. On Tuesday, he played and won four matches. Two of them came in a 5-4 loss to Salem in the team semifinals. Meanwhile Davis, the defending Group AA champion, had played only one easy semifinal singles' match.
Pfiel, though, showed his strength early and seemed to have more power than Davis in the classic match-up of the Indians' southpaw against the Harrisonburg right-hander. Pfiel was in control after breaking Davis' serve and was serving for the first set with a 5-4 lead. Davis broke Pfiel's serve and that set the Blacksburg player back.
Just as suddenly as he lost it, Pfiel regained his edge. "I guess he [Davis] thought he pretty much had the match in his grip. He got a little off his concentration and missed a few easy shots," Pfiel said.
Pfiel didn't become complacent. Even when Davis was penalized a game in the third set for throwing his racket that made it 4-0, Pfiel insisted it wasn't over. "I'm going to take it point-by-point, set-by-set, game-by-game," Pfiel said.
Still, the only worry might have been that he could have worn himself out after so much activity on Wednesday. "Right now I'm a little tired. I feel it," said Pfiel, who transferred to Blacksburg from Utah. "When I came here, I never thought I'd win a state title."
Salem only beat Bruton 5-4 in last year's Group AA semifinals and the Williamsburg school returned its entire team. "But we were a lot stronger," said Petersen, whose squad returned five players. "Last year, we had [Jeff] Henley who was a freshman and [Kevin] Dalal who was a sophomore but was a freshman in age. They've gotten a lot stronger."
Most of all, Petersen said No. 2 Arnold had improved a lot.
"In my old style, I tried to force the issue," said Arnold, who beat Chris Whipple 6-3, 6-0. "Over the winter, I worked at being steady and consistent so I could wear out the opponent. You'll meet opponents who will still beat you, but the majority of time, this will still work."
Petersen said the key might have been beating Blacksburg. It was a revenge match for the Indians opened the season by beating the Spartans 5-4. A second match was canceled because of bad weather.
"It might have helped that we didn't play the second match because we worked on some things for the return. I couldn't have told the kids not to try them and then Blacksburg would have been more prepared for us [in the state]," Petersen said.
Pfiel and Gibb soundly beat Veloso and Arnold in the doubles final. The Salem team won the first game in the second set but lost the next three and never recovered.
"They blanketed the net, controlled the net and took us out of our normal game plan," Petersen said. "We were unable to pass them or to successfully lob them. They had tremendous serving." \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: ***CORRECTION***