Godwin’s Parker falls in state final

FALLS CHURCH - In his final high school tennis match, Kyle Parker fought through a pulled stomach muscle, switched shirts after sweating through the first one and survived a tension-filled tiebreaker in the second set.

What he couldn't do, however, was contain two hot streaks from Justin Shane, which the J.E.B. Stuart-Fairfax senior rode to a 6-2, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4 victory in yesterday's state tennis championship.

Parker graduates from Mills Godwin this week and will play at the College of Charleston.

"I tried to give it my all because I knew it was the last match of my high school career," Parker said. "I tried to ignore the pain in my stomach when I served, but it was killing me."

Parker fatigued himself Friday, defeating longtime adversary Siddarth Balaji. Yesterday, he faced an equally challenging foe in Shane, who had yet to lose a set this year before Parker took the second.

Shane cruised to victory early as Parker was trying to get a feel for his game and sent several balls long. In the second set, Parker took over, dashing out to a lead with the help of a strong backhand. He extended his lead to 4-1 by hitting the net and getting a bounce for the winning point.

But with a chance to put away the set at 5-2, a long back-and-forth game went Shane's way, and he was off on his first run of the day.

"He got hot for a while, and there was nothing I could really do," Parker said. "I tried to slow him down, and luckily it worked a little."

Even without the effort, the game played at a slower pace than would be expected. Parker couldn't do his spinning serve because of the injury, and he was able to return Shane's powerful openers, which created several protracted rallies.

Parker had to force a tiebreaker after falling behind 6-5 in the second. He did so by winning four straight points, then broke open the tiebreaker with an ace, a spike, and two points later an emphatic fist pump to celebrate a 7-3 victory.

In the break before the third set, he changed from a gray Mills Godwin T-shirt to a red shirt, an attempt to escape the sweat that had accumulated.

The third set opened with optimism for Parker as he broke Shane's serve to take the first game. That was the last one he would win for a while, though.

Shane's second hot streak was enough to build a 3-1 lead, finishing it off by outlasting Parker with a strong forehand in the set's fourth game.