Emmaus freshman Chris Stone was the story of the district tournaments last year when he went from the No. 2 player on his own team in the regular season to the No. 1 player in the district on his way to a gold medal.
This year’s pursuit at another individual championship was thwarted by Freedom senior Noah Rodburg but allowed the second-year star to join forces with his older brother, Nick, in a stacked doubles field.
The two made the most of the opportunity with a dominant run to a doubles championship, defeating all four opponents in straight sets, including a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Freedom in the final to add a pair of gold medals to the family trophy display.
Although he’s been on the right side of a championship before, the final moments were nervy for Chris who found a way to pull through and enjoy an emotional celebration with his brother on the final point.
“I went for the backhand volley, and I was shaking,” Stone said. “I finally put it away and from there it was incredible. I got to chest bump him and we were just smiling. It was all worth it.”
The 2A doubles bracket featured more drama but a familiar name on top as Aveer Chadha won his third straight doubles district championship for Moravian Academy. The junior phenom teamed up with senior Harry Vicic for the first time after winning his previous two titles with Ford Koch to get past another set of talented brothers from Lehighton.
Senior Bekim Cokrlija and junior Bayto Cokrlija battled the Lions duo to a third set, but Chadha and Vicic prevailed 6-4, 6-7 (7-3), 6-2 to continue Moravian Academy’s reign in the doubles tournament.
“I told them at the beginning of the year that if one of you doesn’t win singles, you’re going to win doubles,” Moravian Academy coach Rick Brown said. “That’s always one of our goals. They both serve well, they both have good volleys…they’re good kids.”
Both tandems will advance to the PIAA Tournament on May 23-24 at Hershey Racquet Club. The first two rounds will be played on Friday before the semifinal and championship rounds on Saturday, May 24.
CLASS 2A FINAL
While Chadha was a part of the last two district doubles championships, the Moravian Academy teammates did not enter the tournament as the top seed in 2A. That honor was left for Lehighton’s Corklija brothers who lived up to the ranking in a pair of victories in straight sets when the bracket began on Wednesday.
They came out firing again in Thursday’s title match against the Lions, jumping out to a 4-1 lead in the first set, but Vicic’s strong serve and Chadha’s poised net game helped them battle back to win 6-4.
The Corklija’s didn’t go away easily.
After a back and forth second set, a big serve by Bekim and a handful of terrific points at the net allowed the tournament’s top seed to force a decisive third set with a tiebreaker win.
That’s when Brown’s adjustments, Chadha’s execution and Vicic’s dominant serve led to a convincing final set deserving of a championship.
“They’re great players, so first of all congratulations to them, but Harry and I have both played them in singles, so we knew how they came out,” Chadha said. “We were finding success serving to the backhand the entire day, so I think that’s what we did in the third set … focusing on executing that.”
Chadha was precise with his serve to that backhand and Vicic, who didn’t lose a service game all tournament, cruised to a 6-2 win in the final set because of it.
It was a special moment of emotion for both as Chadha added to his gold medals with another win while Vicic earned his first as an individual alongside his teammate who knocked him out of the singles tournament last week.
“At the beginning of the season when our lineup was set, we knew this was our goal to win the doubles tournament and it feels great to have accomplished that,” Vicic said. “It means so much to me.”
“It means a lot, especially after losing Ford as he graduated,” Chadha said. “It means a lot to just identify another partner who I can go out and do it with again. It feels great.”
CLASS 3A FINAL
The 3A final took half the time as Chris and Nick Stone took advantage of the long rest from a quick semifinal win while Freedom’s partnership of Noah Rodburg and Eric Wu quickly regrouped from a two and a half hour win over Nazareth in their respective semifinal.
The Green Hornets pressed the attack early and won just about every long rally in the opening set to jump out to a 1-0 lead. Rodburg, who also featured in last week’s singles championship before falling up short, had a similar experience of an exhausting first match before a rested, talented opponent pressed the attack.
It also didn’t help that the skillset of both Green Hornets is built for a doubles atmosphere.
“They’re the best net players of any of the teams and doubles is about the net,” Emmaus coach Robert Dragotta said. “If you can control the net in doubles, you usually win.”
The Green Hornets duo, as well as they knew each other, didn’t always shine on the doubles court. They grew up playing tournaments together that either ended in a fight, a loss or both, which led to their father labelling it as “family therapy.”
“We used to play all the time when we were younger, and we would hate it. We’d be so mad and always be fighting on the courts,” senior Nick Stone said.
With Nick about to go off to college and the two brothers left with one last season on the same team, things started to change for the better.
“Our relationship in the last couple of months now that he’s about to go off to college has been incredible. We’ve been best friends,” sophomore Chris Stone said. “It’s awesome. He’s a great leader for me, and he pushes me to do the best.”
That was apparent in last year’s tournament as Nick embraced the role as a personal hype man as his brother stormed to a district title and the two continued to feed off each other’s energy on the way to a title they could share together.
“It’s almost like fate that we both lost this year [in singles]. It’s my senior year and I get to win district doubles with my younger brother,” Nick Stone said. “That’s more than anything I could’ve asked for.”
Derek Bast is a freelance writer who can be found on Twitter/X at @derek_bast or reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com
Source: Berkshire mont