The Maryland tennis community is a tight one, so Mt. Hebron junior Sam Wichlin knew exactly what he was getting into when he took the court against Chris Goodwin May 24 at the Cole Field House tennis courts.

Wichlin had seen the Rockville senior cleaning up at USTA tournaments that both were playing in. They hadn't played in those tournaments, but they were playing now for a state championship.

"Everything I thought about him was true pretty much. He puts the ball wherever he wants to every single time he hits it ... I expected everything that happened, he just hit every corner. Where I wasn't, he hit it," said an upbeat Wichlin after his 6-1, 6-0 loss to Goodwin, the 95th ranked junior player in the nation by the United States Tennis Association.

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Wichlin was upbeat because he had never played in the state tournament before, let alone been in the state championship match.

Playing behind the likes of Centennial's Ryan Lissner and state champion David Nguyen, of Wilde Lake, the past two years, Wichlin could never make it out of the region.

"He exceeded his season goal, which was to get to the state tournament. To get to the state finals is just incredible," Mt. Hebron coach Lisa Vitali said.

Wichlin made it to the finals by defeating Northwest's Neil Soni in the semifinals. Soni had upset the second-seed in the opening round and won the first set against Wichlin before Wichlin rallied back to win the next two. In that match he won a point with a fabled "tweener," a desperation, back-to-the-net, between-the-legs shot.

"It was cool to do that in front of everybody," Wichlin said.

Since Goodwin graduates, Wichlin will return as the top finishing player in the state.

"He's just going to continue working. If anything, this will inspire him to realize that he has what it takes to play at the high levels. Once he gets another summer, another fall season of USTA in, he's going to be quite a force in high school," Vitali said.

Wichlin got some help in his state tournament run from the very players that prevented him from attending in previous years. He gained valuable practice by hitting with Nguyen, a senior who is being home schooled this year, and Lissner, last year's county Player of the Year who is now playing at Louisiana State University. On a weekly basis, Wichlin practices with Atholton sophomore John Healey, a 2007 mixed doubles state champion, whom he beat for the county and region titles.

"It's invaluable to have his hitting partners be Ryan Lissner and David Nguyen and John Healey. You can't get better than that," Vitali said.

Nguyen beat Goodwin for the 2006 state championship when Goodwin was a sophomore. So both Goodwin and Wichlin know what it's like to be an excellent player who is blocked out by better players.

"Sam definitely has a shot next year to win it," said Goodwin, who will play next year for Emory University. "After (Lissner, Nguyen and three-time state champ Jared Pinsky) left, I knew I really only had one shot to win it and I did it."

Aside from Wichlin, the only other entry playing on day two was the River Hill mixed doubles team of seniors Lamie Nguyen and Akshay Raju.

Nguyen and Raju won two consecutive marathon matches on Friday in time to make it to their graduation that afternoon, but lost in the semifinals the following morning.

"It was tough, we played nearly five hours of tennis yesterday and ran to graduation after that and had a family party after that, so it was a pretty rough day ... it's kind of weird still playing for my school team after I've graduated," said Nguyen, who graduated as a potential state champ and made it further in the state tournament than she had ever before.

"We knew that we were out of school, so this was just the last thing we had to do," Raju said.

E-mail Andrew Conrad at aconrad@patuxent.com.

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