Mars tennis duo nets WPIAL title
ADAMS TWP — Mars junior tennis players Aaron Gruber and Josh Raymundo don't worry about chemistry.
Familiarity helps eliminate any rust that may come from the Planets' dual meets.
Raymundo and Gruber are Mars' No. 1 and 2 singles players during the regular season and don't have an opportunity to play together.
Before the WPIAL Class AAA doubles tournament started, Gruber doesn't think they had played together since last summer.
Not that they needed to adjust.
“We know each other's game so well,” Gruber said. “I'm a righty and he's a lefty, so it works out well.”
Things worked so well Tuesday at Norwin that Raymundo and Gruber ended up making history.
With a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win over North Allegheny's Jared Isaacs and Richard Hofmann, they became the first Mars duo to win a WPIAL doubles title.
“I have a big serve and Aaron is at the net,” Raymundo said. “Aaron's ready to move around and has a big serve himself. We want to use the serve to our advantage and crash the net.”
Winning this season made it especially exciting for Gruber. Mars bumped up to Class AAA.
Last season, Gruber and Raymundo were eliminated in the section semifinals.
“We didn't know what to expect,” Gruber said. “We knew there would be better competition and we've surprised each other and other people with how well we've played. We're putting Mars on the map.”
The Planets have made their mark since they've bumped up. Mars, which reached the state semifinals last season, is 6-1 and tied with North Allegheny and Pine-Richland for first place in Section 3-AAA.Planets coach Chris Knauff felt Raymundo and Gruber showed a lot of improvement during the section and WPIAL tournament.“I think they were able to get to the net more comfortably,” Knauff said. “In singles tennis, you play a lot more from the baseline. In doubles, you play a lot more at the net.”Their most important lesson came from a loss to Isaacs and Hofmann in the section tournament.North Allegheny's top duo squeaked out a 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 win.The Mars duo didn't come away empty-handed.“We got the feel of the game,” Raymundo said. “We noticed they are more handsy and they like to finesse it. They like to try to make us miss with their hands, so instead of staying back, we crashed the net.”Much like their first meeting, the second match ended up in three sets. Raymundo and Gruber both felt frustration during their loss in the second set.“We knew it was going to be a really close match,” Raymundo said. “We weren't really panicked.”They didn't look back. Mars opened up the deciding set by winning the first three games.“We wanted to get ahead early,” Gruber said. “Whoever did that was going to win.”Their victory earned Gruber and Raymundo a trip to the PIAA Championships May 22 at the Hershey Racquet Club.They also reached the state quarterfinals as freshmen after placing second in WPIAL Class AA.Raymundo is looking forward to seeing how they can do at the next level.“Aaron and I think it's a possibility to go far in states and have a chance to win,” Raymundo said. “We could be looking at a good run.”
