Maddie Shaak, shown at the L-L League Championships, booked a berth in states by taking the silver medal at Monday's District Three event in Hershey. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO)
HERSHEY - Considered strictly in terms of bottom-line results and outcomes, it was a good news-bad news, sweet yet bittersweet kind of day for Maddie Shaak.

The Elco senior tennis standout played without question the best match of her life on Monday and qualified for her first state tournament in the process.

She also pretty much got run over in a championship match and had to give up her quest to defend another coveted title while dashing a close friend's hopes at the same time.

That's the small-picture analysis of the day Shaak spent at Hershey Racquet Club.

The big picture looks quite a bit different, though, despite a day of roller-coaster emotions that saw the third-seeded Shaak:

  • (1) completely dominate longtime nemesis Anna Spoden of York Catholic, 6-0, 6-2 in the District Three Class AA semifinals

  • (2) get utterly overwhelmed by the power game of Wyomissing's Audrey Ann Blakely in the championship match, and

  • (3) qualify for states on the strength of the win over Spoden but have to give up her district doubles title defense with good pal Kristi Fidler due to PIAA rules that prohibit players from competing in both the singles and doubles tourneys at states.

    Yep, it was a crazy, exciting, thrilling, rewarding, disappointing and depressing day all at once. Mostly crazy exciting, thrilling and rewarding, though, all things considered.

    "Really, really cool," was Shaak's summation of her eventful day. "I mean, I have mixed emotions

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    that I won't get to play doubles with Kristi. I'm gonna miss that. Knowing that our league final (win) was our last doubles match ever, that's kinda sad.

    "But I'm really fortunate I could come out here and play my best. This has just been a really great experience for me. I never thought I'd be in a district final for singles, so it's really awesome. And going to states is like the icing on top of this nice senior year. To have this opportunity is just so wonderful."

    It's an opportunity Shaak earned by playing absolutely scintillating tennis against Spoden, who had beaten her in districts in both 2009 and last year in convincing fashion.

    This year, though, Shaak emphatically turned the tables on talented lefty Spoden, running her all over the place while spraying winners and other unreturnable shots almost at will.

    "She played a phenomenal semifinal match against a very talented and experienced Anna Spoden," Elco coach Zach Cook said of Shaak. "She played some of the best tennis I've seen her play in that match, and that was awesome. She played very well on Saturday (in the first two rounds), but she brought it up another notch against a great player she had already lost to twice."

    Unfortunately for Shaak, another great lefty player - and another, higher level of tennis - was waiting in the district final in the person of the top-seeded Blakely, the PIAA Class AA state runner-up a year ago and a University of Pittsburgh recruit.

    Owner of prodigious power in all phases of the game - serve, forehand, backhand, everything - Blakely simply overwhelmed Shaak from the very first point, running off the first seven games of the match and never looking back on the way to her first district crown.

    Last year in a district semifinal meeting between the two, Shaak gave Blakely a mighty push before falling, 7-5, 6-3. But this time, Shaak, try as she might, simply had no answers for Blakely's power.

    "Audrey Ann's obviously a great player," Shaak said. "You don't see players like her too often until you get to this level. She was playing awesome. Last year, the key to getting more games off her was keeping it in play. This year, I tried to start off like that but her power just kinda overrided that.

    "I hope playing more players like her will give me a better experience and get me ready for college tennis."

    At the very least, the Blakely experience should give Shaak a hint of what could be in store at states, slated for Nov. 2 and 3, back at Hershey Racquet Club.

    "I really have no clue what to expect," Shaak said. "I've never even gone and watched state singles. I'm really just going in there inexperienced and trying my luck. I've had a good season and I want to keep it going. I don't know what I'm gonna see there, but hopefully I can do my best and play my best tennis."

    Notes: Katie Wagner of Susquehannock took the Class AAA title, besting Wilson's Sruthi Kamprath, 6-0, 7-5 in the title match. ... Spoden rebounded to top Lancaster Catholic's Lil Veronis in the AA third-place match, 6-2, 6-1, and qualify for states. ... Lancaster-Lebanon League AAA champ Katina Jones of Penn Manor won the AAA third-place match, 6-4, 6-1, over Nicole Coons of Mechanicsburg.