THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 19, 1995 TAG: 9505190628
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Maury's Rob Brown and Ross Hoffman rallied from 5-2 down in the third set to upend Josh Miranda and Adam Heward at second doubles, lifting the two-time champion Commodores to a 5-4 victory over Tallwood in the Eastern Region boys tennis semifinals Thursday at Owl Creek Municipal Tennis Center.
The victory, Maury's 42nd in a row against regional opponents, propelled the Commodores into today's 1:30 p.m. final against Lafayette. The Peninsula District champion Rams topped Beach District winner Cox, 5-4.
Tallwood and Maury split the six singles matches and first and third doubles, leaving the second doubles match on the court to decide the outcome.
Brown and Hoffman won their first set, 6-2, but promptly lost 11 of the next 14 games. But with the Lions on the verge of becoming the 3-year-old school's first team to reach a regional final, the Commodores' duo came alive.
``Give coach (John Brinkman) the credit,'' Brown said. ``He got us pumped up.''
``He told us to lob, like he does,'' Hoffman added.
The Commodores' pair rattled off the next four games. The match then came to a premature conclusion when a ball-abuse violation against Tallwood drew a game penalty, ending the match.
Maury's return to the regional final comes as something of a surprise, since the Commodores are missing five of their top six players from last year's championship team. Lafayette was also hit hard by graduation, as the Rams lost three top-six players, including two-time regional champion Mark Tepes.
But Lafayette (13-0) displayed impressive depth Thursday, taking four of the six singles matches before wrapping things up when Andy Wichmann and Blake Daniels downed Bobby Kalantar and Chris Imrich, 6-3, 7-6, at second doubles. Cox picked up the meaningless other two doubles matches to account for the final score.
The Falcons played without No. 5 Tom Lamoureux, who was ill. by CNB