Nicolas Scheller has had his spot in the PIAA Class 2A singles tournament locked in for a month, but he’s not really concerned with who he will see when he steps on the court to play in the event for the first time.
“I’m not going to go up there blind, but I’m just going to play my game,” Scheller said. “I don’t look at the draws. I show up, I’m focused, I come into the match and I do me.”
That’s probably a pretty good philosophy for several reasons. Not only will he be playing in a unfamiliar venue at Hershey Racquet Club when the state finals open May 28, but many of the other districts around the state just started playing their individual tournaments this week and haven’t yet crowned either champions or state qualifiers.
Scheller is fortunate. His first-round opponent was determined last week when Pequea Valley senior Brady Burns won the District 3 consolation match and locked in his spot in the state finals for the 8 a.m. match opposite the North Catholic junior.
Burns competed in the state tournament as a sophomore when he and teammate Devon Clemmer lost in the first round of the doubles draw to Josh Arno and Mihir Ram of Lower Moreland, but he has been in big matches before. He was the No. 1 singles player for Pequea Valley when the team beat another District 3 foe, Conrad Weiser, to win the 2019 PIAA Class 2A team title.
“It’s still a tournament and I play a lot of tournaments,” Scheller said. “I just have to do what I do best and to stay focused and play every point like I play.”
Scheller, who is the No. 6-ranked junior in the state, is no stranger to playing in state tournaments. He just hasn’t done so in Pennsylvania.
As a freshman at St. Pius X in Albuquerque, he and teammate Zach Kolkmeyer finished second in the New Mexico Class 1A-4A doubles tournament.
Still, he knows there are a few tweaks he needs to work on as he prepares for his first foray to a state final on the eastern side of the Mississippi.
“My serve, for sure, because a serve is really powerful, especially if you can get free points off of it,” Scheller said. “Also a little on my forehand. I think those are the two main components.”
Quaker Valley’s Mike Sirianni, the WPIAL runner-up, will take on the as-yet-to-be-determined District 12 champion, while third-place finisher Drew Dimidjian will square off with District 1 champion Andrew Schiller of Jenkintown.
Class 3A
Jacob Patterson had his first opportunity to play in the PIAA 3A finals dashed when, his freshman year, he lost a third-place consolation match in three sets to Sewickley Academy’s Arjan Bedi
A lot has changed since 2019.
Not only is Patterson, the reigning WPIAL champion, among the favorites to make a run at the state championship this year, the WPIAL now only has two automatic qualifiers instead of three for the tournament.
“It was devastating, so it was nice to go from fourth to first,” Patterson said. “It will hopefully be good to do well at states as well.”
Patterson will open his run at the first state championship in South Fayette history with a match against District 1 third-place finisher Justin Minerva of Lower Merion. Minerva is the No. 10 senior in the state and has committed to Haverford.
Patterson is the No. 3 junior in the state.
“I play tournaments out in Philly, so I’ll pay attention to the draw and do the things I need to do,” Patterson said. “I had a good amount of time to do the things I need to do.”
Shady Side Academy senior Colin Gramley has been through this all before as a two-time PIAA doubles runner-up with Naman Dua. But this will be his first time heading to the state finals without a teammate next to him.
“It’s obviously different when I was going with Naman and we had each other to feed off of,” Gramley said. “But I’m used to those courts, I’ve been there a lot and I don’t think I’m too nervous. I’m fit to play these types of guys.”
Gramley will take on the District 2 champion, junior Ben Ziegler of Crestwood. The two have never faced each other previously in any PIAA tournament.
First Published: May 14, 2021, 9:30 a.m.