Atop his goals for his senior season, Vihar Shah listed winning the Nassau individual title and competing in the state tournament for a second straight year.
With that goal well within reach, however, the Herricks standout lost a break in the second set of the county final Saturday afternoon and doubt started to creep in.
“I got really nervous,” Shah said. “I was thinking that I shouldn’t choke, but I was choking more and more.”
Perhaps looking for a sign, Shah spotted a reporter wearing a Yankees T-shirt.
“I saw his shirt and thought of Mariano Rivera,” Shah said. “He closes things out.”
And so did Shah, beating friend Conor Dauer from Cold Spring Harbor, 6-2, 6-3 at Oceanside High School.
The New Hyde Park resident is the first Herricks player in more than 20 years to capture the Nassau individual title.
“I’m really happy,” Shah said. “The feeling hasn’t kicked in yet, but it will soon, I guess.”
A year ago, Shah lost to eventual state champion Josh Levine from Cold Spring Harbor and finished third. The Binghamton-bound senior did extra work in the off-season and even trained with Dauer and Doug Notaris from Wantagh at Robbie Wagner’s Tournament Training Center in Glen Cove.
“I feel like my fitness got me where I was because I was getting every ball back,” Shah said.
However, Shah said it was difficult to compete against a close friend and training partner in the final.
“I’d rather play someone I don’t know as well so I can be more competitive,” he said. “Even though he’s a friend you have to put that aside for the match.”
Of particular importance Saturday for Shah was a break at the start of each set.
“I came out pumped up,” Shah said. “I’ve been working really hard for this. I knew from the beginning I had to start well.”
Dauer, who will play at William & Mary next year, fell behind 4-1 in the second, but started to rally and pulled within 4-3. However, Shah was too much on this day.
“When he’s on point and he’s serving well, its impossible to get his serve in,” Dauer said of Shah. “He just hits it with such pace, it just dies off the racket.”
A powerful hitter with quick feet, the 6-foot-4 Shah, who defeated Notaris in the semifinals earlier Saturday, pounded the ball throughout the match. However, like the Yankees closer, he also took a little off to close out the biggest win of his high school career.
“He’s actually probably the best male athlete in the school,” Herricks coach Ray Cross said. “He could play any sport, but he only plays tennis.”
Roslyn duo fall
It was a tough day for the Roslyn doubles pair of Brett Edelbaum and Alec Goldberg, who rallied to beat Oceanside’s Ben Zaslav and Jace Koretz in the quarterfinals, but fell to Addison Berniker and Henry Tell of Syosset in the semifinals and Plainview JFK’s Josh Young and Yuval Solomon in the third-place match, which determined a state tournament berth.
