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Sunday, May 18, 2003

By Phil Axelrod, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

There's a new tennis club in town, a place where friends compete and promote the game within the community.

This is not an exclusive club. Rather, it is a growing collection of tennis enthusiasts who meet regularly to organize events and offer free clinics.

The Highland Park Tennis Club was formed last year and has about 40 members who play regularly at the Highland Park courts on Stanton Avenue. There's a game available for everyone, from the beginner to the advanced player.

The president of the club is Hanna Spearman and the vice president and director of the clinics program is Joyce Scott.

"We're always looking for people who want to join us," Spearman said. "This is a way to have fun and help the community at the same time."

Campus courts

Edinboro's tennis program, which will be discontinued, received a fond farewell from the league's coaches who voted Edinboro's Andy Findlay as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and senior Scott LeBaron to the second all-conference team.

"I'm sure that sympathy had something to do with their thinking," said Findlay, whose team was 13-11 and finished third in the PSAC tournament. "At the same time, it's nice to see the team get some recognition. We did have a good season and finished higher than we have in many years at the PSAC championships."

LeBaron played mostly No. 1 singles and had a 9-15 record and was 13-13 at No. 1 doubles.

Slippery Rock's Matt Meredith was the women's coach of the year after leading the Rock to its first PSAC championship since 1981, the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division II tournament for the first time and a school record for victories in a season with a 21-3 record.

Slippery Rock's Ashley Michaux, a freshman from Penn-Trafford, was rookie of the year. She was 22-2 in singles and teamed with her older sister, Christy, to go 23-3 and rank 17th nationally in doubles.

Ashley Michaux was on the all-conference first team, along with Slippery Rock's Jessica Bungo, a junior from Indiana, Pa., and senior Ella Reilly and IUP junior Jackie Kulp.

On the second team were Slippery Rock's Kelly Anderson and Christy Michaux and California's Kylie Corsi, Linda Escobedo and Olga Gonzalez.

The tournament trail

The 83rd annual Edgewood Invitational tournament, which attracted a strong field of professionals and amateurs representing three countries and six states, produced repeat champions in both events at the Edgewood Club.

Ryan Sachire (Canfield, Ohio) defeated Adam Baranowski (Toronto), 6-4, 6-3, to win the singles title and the Mercer brothers of Mt. Lebanon, Ron and Tom, won the doubles title with a 6-3, 6-2 victory against Lloyd Adamson (Wexford) and Raul Raymundo (Pittsburgh) in the final match.

For the record

Mike Petrocky defended himself and disagreed with Don Mercer's statement in this column last week that the West Penn/National Collegiate Clay Court Championships in Mt. Lebanon was "in a shambles" when he became the tournament director seven years ago. Mercer replaced Petrocky, the director the previous 19 years.

"I was shocked and astonished when I read what Mercer said," Petrocky said. "What was so great about the tournament were the people who worked so hard in a voluntary effort. Don knew for over a year he was going to take over. There was sufficient money for him to run the tournament for four years without raising any money.

"I turned over a wonderful tournament committee -- the best in the country. My question is: What was in shambles? The only thing that may have been different for him was he chose not to go out and recruit top-quality college players. Maybe he created some of the shambles."

Mercer stepped down as director this spring for health reasons.

The tournament will be run by Dan Hackett, the tournament's treasurer the past two years.

The tournament added a Future's event last year and now is called the Future's/National Collegiate Clay Court Championships.