McDonogh coach Laddie Levy has been waiting for Mark Gober to break through in a big way on the tennis court. The Eagles junior couldn't have picked a better time to comply.
Gober defeated Loyola's defending champ, Brian Crook, 6-2, 6-3, for the No. 1 singles title at the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference Tennis Championships yesterday at Bare Hills Athletic and Tennis Club in Brooklandville.
"I've been waiting for Mark to have this moment for two years," said Levy. "He's a very good player who simply hasn't quite believed enough in himself, and he hasn't been able to sustain believing in himself, which means hitting through his shots, believing in his serves and hitting out consistently. He did that throughout the tournament, and he really dominated play."
The difference in Gober's game could be measured in his 6-0, 6-1 semifinal win over top-seeded John Malooly of Calvert Hall, who had bounced Gober in the first round of last year's tournament. Earlier this season, Gober lost to Malooly, 6-0, 6-0.
The Pikesville resident had never beaten Crook until their regular-season match this spring. Yesterday, his strong serving and baseline game proved to be trouble for the Loyola senior in a match that Gober conceded was closer than the score would indicate.
"I won a lot of deuce games," Gober said. "My serve was on, and I was able to mix it up, hit some slices and some kick serves. I kept him off balance with my serve."
Gober, ranked 12th in the U.S. Tennis Association Mid-Atlantic boys 16 singles last season, also was returning the ball well against Crook, who was ranked ninth in boys 18 singles in 2002. In Gober's final service game, he hit the ball only six times - two aces and two put-aways.
"Returning well was important because he's a serve-and-volleyer," Gober said. "I was able to get my serves at his feet, and he wasn't able to volley. That kept me in a lot of points."
Levy said the conditions favored Crook after rainy weather forced the match indoors at Bare Hills.
"Brian hits such a hard ball that [indoors] is where the ball's not moving on him, and he can really drive it hard," Levy said. "What Mark's been able to do is get everything back. He continues to run for balls, and he makes you hit one more shot than you want to. He was also just plain hitting winners."
Gober's victory regenerated a bit of the excitement the Eagles had through most of the season. They went 11-0 before falling to Gilman, 3-1, in the MIAA team championships last week.
"This win by Mark redeems a little bit of that season, because it's such a big thing for him," Levy said.
In other matches, Calvert Hall's Gary Simonette defeated Rohit Rao of Gilman, 6-1, 6-4, for the No. 2 singles title.
Simonette, who was expected to be Calvert Hall's No. 1 player, had missed most of the season with a shoulder injury. He began playing for Calvert Hall again only three weeks ago.
Top seeds Alex Cole and Chris Mason of Gilman had to fight off a serious challenge from McDonogh's Corey Chow and Shalin Parikh, 7-6 (4), 0-6, 7-5, to win the A Conference doubles.
"They played a great match," Cole said. "I was starting to get nervous late in the match, but we pulled through."
The Greyhounds made it a clean sweep in the No. 2 doubles when Peter Ahn and Josh Sweren defeated McDonogh's Matt Ford and Andrew Grochal, 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-3.
"We got behind and needed to change our attitude to get back in the match," Ahn said.
In the B Conference, Beth Tfiloh placed players in four of the five finals.
The No. 1 singles championship will be decided at 3 p.m. Tuesday at McDonogh between Beth Tfiloh's Ben Friedman and Severn's Ben Michelman.
In the No. 2 singles, Beth Tfiloh's Sam Fuchs defeated Archbishop Spalding's Robert Dupaya, 6-4, 6-2. In doubles, Beth Tfiloh's Dan Josephs and Jeff Kleinberg defeated Josh Playner and Julie Schechter, 6-2, 6-3, for the No. 1 title. The No. 2 final between Tyler Hyland and Ryan O'Mara of Severn and Kelli Foster and Alia Stropp of St. Mary's will be played at 3 p.m. Monday, also at McDonogh.
Mike Frainie contributed to this article.
