Chris Foster has achieved so much in his tennis career. The Upper St. Clair senior has won WPIAL team titles, a WPIAL doubles championship, his fair share of USTA singles tournaments ... even the 2005 National Collegiate Clay Court mixed doubles championship.

He was a five-time medalist at the PIAA Class AAA tennis championships. But one thing Foster never did earn was PIAA gold.

A week after being a key member of a Panthers team that was state runner-up for the fourth season in a row, Foster teamed with sophomore Jay Jones to win the PIAA Class AAA doubles championship last Saturday at the Hershey Racquet Club.

"Losing the team title for the fourth year in a row was definitely disappointing," Foster said. "But the fact that I got some gold at Hershey is really big because I wanted a gold medal there. I played in so many tournaments there and never was able to walk away the winner."

Of course, merely qualifying as one of the top 16 teams, singles players or doubles teams in your enrollment classification is accomplishment enough, and it's not as if Foster were going home empty-handed. He had earned the four silver medals with the Panthers team and picked up a bronze last year with Jones in the doubles tournament.

But there is no feeling like leaving an event as the winner. Foster and Jones said that although it still doesn't make up for losing, 3-2, May 20 in the PIAA team final -- the Panthers had been pointing to that rematch with Lower Merion all season long -- it was as close as making amends as they could get.

"It does make up for it a little bit," Jones said. "I'd rather have the team, that was more important. But it's really nice to win this. We'll just try to win [the team tournament] next year."

Jones and Foster opened up with a 6-2, 6-4 win against a team from Council Rock South in the first round Friday morning and were extended to three sets in a 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-3 match with State College in the quarterfinals later that afternoon.

"They had a really good singles player and he [Nick Martin] might have been the best doubles player in the tournament," Foster said. "We just came out in that third set and wanted it. That's your reward for staying mentally tough over that 2 1/2 hours: whoever gets the job done over that time wins."

Saturday morning, Foster and Jones enjoyed a relatively easy straight-sets win against the District 11 champions from Parkland in the semifinals. That set the stage for a showdown with seniors Chris Rossi and Julio Fredes of Pennsbury, who had won the District 1 title.

"Usually I'm calm and collected and just try to go out there, play how I have been taught and let the results speak for themselves," Foster said. "But this I wanted to win really bad.

"There was a lot of drama in that match. Jay and I kept telling ourselves, 'Just keep playing our game. Keep at it.' We kept reassuring ourselves after every point, like a nervous habit. It came down to the end."

Foster and Jones hung on for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory.

"I had been to Hershey a bunch of times now and had never won gold," Jones said. "It was great."

Foster will play at Allegheny College next season while Jones sets his sights on qualifying for the PIAA tournament in singles -- and, yes, to help lead Upper St. Clair to that elusive team gold.

The team Jones and Foster defeated for the WPIAL title last month was junior Doug Subosits and senior Patrick Kennedy of Peters Township. Those two would ultimately earn the bronze medal at the tournament.

"It was a an accomplishment just even getting there," Subosits said. "Our goal had originally been just to make it there, get out of WPIALs, so we've got to be happy with third [place]."

"We lost in the semis, and it's always disappointing to lose," Kennedy said. "But we came out firing [in the consolation match] because third place was the best we could do then and we wanted that."