More than an hour after stepping off the court Saturday at Riverside Tennis Center in Wichita, Alex Sherer was still in pain.
Physically, that is. His left calf
that had cramped up on him late in Saturday's Class 3-2-1A state championship
singles match was still locked up, understandable given the match lasted more
than two hours and went three sets, two going to tiebreakers.
Despite the physical agony, Sherer
was in sheer ecstasy. The Rossville senior had just made history, becoming the
school's first state tennis champion.
Sherer took a 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 7-6
(7-4) win over Wichita Collegiate's Nick Grabon in a grueling championship
match, capping a 36-2 season — the only one of Sherer's high school
career.
"I don't think anything compares
to what that means to me, and nothing compares to the moment for sure,"
Sherer said. "It means everything. Rossville's not exactly full of tennis
players. I was that kid looking up watching all these high school kids winning
state titles in football, baseball, whatever. Having big sporting moments. This
was my sport and not knowing if I'd ever have that chance to have a high school
career."
Sherer cruised into Saturday's
semifinals with a pair of easy wins on Friday and then waited out a long rain
delay to start Saturday's play before beating Smoky Valley's Jake Lucas 6-1,
6-0 in the semifinals.
Instead of getting another shot at
Kansas City Christian's Caleb Bartels, who beat him in the regional finals,
Sherer got Grabon, who advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Bartels in his
semifinal match.
The two hadn't faced each other since
their youth and with the tournament being held in Wichita, Grabon had a large
contingent on hand to watch the match. But he'd seen enough of Grabon to know
what he brought to the table.
After dropping the first set in a
10-8 tiebreaker, Sherer had to change things up.
"Nick's forehand is his big
shot, so I was trying to keep it low to his backhand," Sherer said.
"Mix him up, get forward a lot. And it was working early on. I just had to
flip the momentum."
He accomplished that as Sherer jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second set. But
Grabon flipped it right back, reeling off four straight game wins to close to
5-4 before Sherer closed out the set to force a third one for the title.
In the third set, his left calf
started cramping on him, but Sherer fought through it. He got out fast again in
the final set, leading 3-1 and 5-2. But he couldn't finish off Grabon
immediately and saw the Spartan rally to not only tie the match, but go up 6-5
with the serve to win it.
But Sherer broke Grabon's serve and
after being tied 3-3 in the tiebreaker won four of the next five points for the
title.
"I just told myself, 'This is
it. This is what it all comes down to,'" Sherer said. "I came up with
some good shots and got it back to a tiebreaker and played some key points in
the tiebreaker to seal it.
