Allderdice junior Max Schmerin loves to play tennis so much, it hurts. Literally.

Schmerin, one of the top high school players in the area, has been battling tennis elbow the past few years. The ailment, which involves the tendon in the upper forearm and can be quite painful, is caused primarily by overuse.

The injury intensified for Schmerin the past year, causing him to drastically cut back on his tournament-playing schedule. Only in the past few months has Schmerin gradually built up his playing again.

"It's made me appreciate playing -- a lot," Schmerin said of having the sport temporarily taken away from him.

Schmerin terms his elbow "a lot better now," and it shows. He went undefeated this high school season, leading the Dragons to another City League team championship and taking his third consecutive City League singles title.

Wearing a special band on his tender arm and taking time to be diligent in icing it down, Schmerin said he is playing the best tennis of his high school career.

He will play in the PIAA Class AAA singles tournament, which begins tomorrow at the Hershey Racquet Club.

Allderdice teammates senior Chris Morris and sophomore Shane Fischbach qualified for the PIAA Class AAA doubles tournament, also in Hershey tomorrow and Saturday.

"Max excels because of his power and quickness," Allderdice coach Keith Goldman said. "He has a hard, flat first serve and a nice 'kicker' second serve. But definitely, his main [strength], I would say, are his precision, hard groudstrokes. He hits with a lot of power and with precision, and it's with good movement. He's very good with his consistency."

Schmerin faces Kyle Maines of Clearfield at noon tomorrow in the first round. Morris and Fischbach were scheduled to play John Walker and Jesse Branken of Punxsutawney in the first round of their tournament at 1:30. Because of a personal scheduling conflict, however, Allderdice couldn't send either of its doubles teams to the PIAA tournament, so those spots will be forfeited.

Typically, City League entrants do not excel at the PIAA level. But Schmerin hopes to go against that trend. To show how strong of a player he is, consider that Schmerin has beaten WPIAL Class AAA singles champion Jay Jones of Upper St. Clair twice in the past year, according to Goldman.

Schmerin has lofty goals for the PIAA tournament, hoping to still be playing on Saturday, which is when the semifinals and finals are scheduled.

"If my arm holds up and I play well," Schmerin said.

Schmerin cruised through the City League singles tournament, beating Kyle Klebba of Brashear, 6-1, 6-0, in the final May 5. Morris and Fischbach won the City League doubles tournament three days later, beating Dragons' teammates Eric Johnson and Aryel Abramovitz in the final, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.

Johnson, a junior, and sophomore Abramovitz were the Dragons' usual first doubles team in the lineup. Morris played second singles and Fischbach third singles. Freshmen Jesse Mendelson and Jesse Irwin played second doubles.

Juniors Jonah Grail and Alex McCartan and freshman Ashwin Iyengar filled in the lineup as needed.

The Dragons went 12-3 overall this season, including a 4-1 loss to State College in the first round of the PIAA team tournament last week. Allderdice won all eight City League matches it played (including two in the postseason) and also went 4-2 playing outside the City, including 3-2 against WPIAL schools.

"I just feel like the luckiest coach in the world to be able to coach the Allderdice tennis team," Goldman said. "Just the way they play, there's the winning tradition, but we also don't ever have any problems with any academic issues or any discipline problems ... They work hard in practice; the kids are great to work with, I look forward to spring to be able to coach this team. I really do."

Daniel "DJ" Goldblum, a Mt. Lebanon resident who attends Winchester Thurston in Shadyside, looks to add a PIAA medal to the WPIAL Class AA gold he won last month.

Goldblum, a sophomore, took fourth place in the PIAA tournament last season. He will face Doug Caplan of Harrisburg Academy in the first round at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

"I'm just going to go up there and do the best I can," he said.

Senior Eric Bradley has been a big part of Mount Pleasant making the WPIAL Class AA team championship match each of the past two seasons, participating in the PIAA tournament each time (the Vikings lost in the first round of this season's tournament last week).

Now he gets to end his high school career at the Hershey Racquet Club as part of the PIAA singles tournament.

Bradley, the WPIAL runner-up, will face District 10 champion Thomas Shuttleworth of Fairview at 9 a.m. tomorrow in the first round.