CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. — At the District II AAA Boy's Tennis Championships #1 seed Pranell Mallaiah didn't look any freshman he looked like a seasoned veteran powering his way to a championship winning 8 straight sets while only losing 10 games.
"I think it's the team practices that really help me through like all of my matches. So far without those I don't think that I would be here today," said Pranell.
With the singles title secured the Comets looked for gold in doubles, but head coach Art Comstock had a slight problem who to coach? The team of Sam Christman and Luke Morgan faced friends and teammates Dominic Peters and Ryan Salony.
"Yeah my role when that happens and it's happened in the past with us fortunately is I don't coach. I tell them this is the one time that you are on your own. If you have questions before the match that is it. Once the balls are in the air it's on you guys," said Art.
"It was a little nerve wracking going into it because we've played them in practice almost everyday so we knew that they were a challenging to play with," said Luke.
"When it was all over it was like that is a great accomplishment to all meet in the finals. That was the plan going into it and I am glad that we did that. It was a lot of fun," said Sam.
Morgan and Christman won it 6-1, 6-2 joining Mallaiah at states.
According to Coach Comstock this isn't the first time that Abington Heights has the singles and double teams represented at states and probably won't be the last time all 3 of these players are underclassmen and will return next season.
"That is what we are looking for is to have both teams competing against each other. It felt a lot like practice because they have duked it out before but they played great," added Art.
Steve Lloyd Newswatch 16 sports Lackawanna County.