Tanaka Overcomes His Old Rival for WCAC Title

Nobu Tanaka knew he could beat DeMatha All-Met Zachary Nicholson. The St. John's senior had done it in the regular season. He had done on the USTA Junior tennis circuit.

But he had not done it in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournament. In each of the past two years, Nicholson stopped Tanaka in the final, and he was worried his accomplished high school career would end with a bunch of close misses at a title.

Tanaka, though, overcame a slow start last week and rallied to win five straight games en route to a 10-5 victory in the No. 1 singles draw.

"He got that monkey off his back," St. John's Coach Merritt Johnson said. "The night before, he didn't sleep and he was really nervous. But he composed himself and he played great."

Gonzaga won the team title for the third time in four years, edging runner-up DeMatha, last year's champion, by five points. The Eagles claimed titles in No. 4, 5, and 6 singles behind Paul Mascola, Malik Waleed and Ryan Jenks, respectively. Waleed and Jenks also captured the No. 3 doubles title.

DeMatha's John Collins and Eric Ward were the respective winners at No. 2 and 3 singles.

Flint Hill's Catalyst

It was only the second match of the season, and it held no consequence in the team's conference standings, but to Flint Hill Coach Ed Jalinske, the Huskies' April 2 clash with five-time Interstate Athletic Conference champion Bullis was the catalyst in the team's 14-0 season, which culminated with a third consecutive Virginia Independent Schools championship.

Flint Hill battled to a 4-3 victory over the Bulldogs, ending a four-year, 43-match winning streak. And Jalinske said the victory sparked something in his team.

"That really psyched these guys up," Jalinske said. "From that point on it was just intense match after intense match, just fighting hard. These guys wanted it badly and they earned it."

The Huskies cruised through the rest of the regular season, with a 5-4 victory over Virginia public school Robinson the only other close match, and hit their peak entering the state tournament, Jalinske said. The result was continued dominance -- Flint Hill downed Trinity Episcopal, 6-3, in the quarterfinals; St. Christopher's, 8-1, in the semifinals; and Potomac School, 7-2, to capture the title.

The team was led by senior Zach Pine and his twin brother Jon, the team's top two singles players who both will play for Virginia Tech next season. Jalinske credited the brothers for setting a standard of hard work throughout the roster.

"They came together, that's all there was to it," Jalinske said. "All that hard work and all that talent just came through at the end."