LV's Pappas Falls in Tennis Finals

by Stephen F. Ball

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Down two games in the third and decisive set of the Virginia AAA championship, Justin Shane found himself in an uncomfortable position. Forget giving up a second-set tiebreak to Mills Godwin senior Kyle Parker, Shane had never even trailed in a match all season and the typically stoic junior's emotions began to boil over.

As he worked his way back in the match, Shane's stoicism returned. He broke Parker's serve twice in the final four games and held his own serve twice to win the match and the championship, 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 at Jefferson District Park in Falls Church.

"I started off slow in the third set, but I was able to get back in it," Shane said after winning Stuart's first state championship of any kind since the 1983 girls' basketball team.

Stuart Coach Matt Hills credited Shane's confidence in himself as the key to victory.

"He never changed the way he plays," Hills said.

In the girls' championship match, Marshall freshman Faby Chaillo continued her amazing season, defeating Loudoun Valley senior Kiersten Pappas, 6-4, 7-5.

The two-set match lasted well more than three hours as the two pummeled each other with high and deep lobs. Pappas and Chaillo specialize in an extremely defensive style of play, running down each ball and returning it high enough to allow them to recover defensively.

Early on, Pappas, who will play for George Mason University next year, tried to be the more aggressive of the two but it appeared that the departure from her typical style of play proved too uncomfortable.

"She kept coming in the net to attack my high ball, so I really had to flatten it out and try to hit it by her," Chaillo said as she clutched her gold medal. "I feel like all this hard work is paying off."

Pappas wouldn't have much time to recover from her loss, as only minutes later she and junior Julianna Jacangelo paired up to take on top-seeded Emily Hahn and Elena Rusu from Douglas Freedom in the girls' doubles championship. Pappas and Jacangelo jumped out to a one-set lead, but faltered in the next two sets to lose, 0-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Up 5-3 in the second set, things began to unwind for Loudoun Valley. Unable to close out the match, the next two games got to deuce and each time Freedom made solid shots to win the game. On top of that, Jacangelo broke the strings in each of her three rackets, forcing her to borrow one from a person in the stands.

"The was a huge momentum shift there," Loudoun Valley Coach Brooke Brown said afterward. "Having to use a racket she wasn't familiar with became sort of a mental thing for her, something she just couldn't get over, and they attacked it."

In boys' doubles, Fairfax senior Sidarth Balaji and sophomore Jason Luu defeated Shane and Daniel Santos, 7-5, 6-4. For Balaji, the victory was bittersweet.

"Obviously I'm still disappointed about [Friday]," Balaji said, referring to his loss in the singles semifinals to Parker. "But a state championship in any aspect is definitely a good thing to have in whatever you get it."

Extra Points

By Paul Tenorio and Matt Brooks