May 28, 2013 2 min read

Peter Hazlett of Mt. Lebanon finished fourth during the PIAA tennis singles tournament held at the Hershey Racquet Club.

After winning his first-round and quarterfinal matches against Jai Redkar of Abington Heights, 6-0, 6-4, and Mike Stanley from Council Rock North, 6-2, 6-3, Hazlett met his match in the semifinals. He dropped a tough two-setter, 7-5, 6-2, to eventual state champion, Mike Buxbaum from North Penn.

Hazlett traded service breaks with Buxbaum in the first set and, back on serve, went up 5-4 before Buxbaum rallied to win three straight games to close out the set and establish control of the match.

Buxbaum, who went on to defeat Adam Blasinsky from Central Catholic for the championship, 6-0, 6-4, had a remarkable showing when games went to deuce. He faced seven such games – four in the semifinal and three in the championship – and went 6-1, including his first two service games against Hazlett and at 5-0 versus Blasinsky to close out the first set of the title match.

Buxbaum’s singles crown was the sixth overall for North Penn, the most in PIAA Class AAA history (the PIAA split into AAA and AA classifications in 1999). It broke a tie with Hazlett’s school.

Hazlett dropped his consolation match to Andrew Sinai from Bethlethem Freedom, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

He dominated the first set with his serve and volley but the Sinai recovered in the second set before narrowly winning the match in the third set.

Hazlett was the runner-up to Blasinsky in the WPIAL championships. Both players return next spring for their senior seasons.