Dillman falls in District IV semifinals
By: Ed Weaver | NTL Sports | May 6, 2014
Senior Aaron Dillman fell to South Williamsport's Christian Cioffi in the semifinals of the District IV singles tournament on Monday, May 5.
Dillman and Cioffi was a match-up between the second and third seeds, with Cioffi taking the match 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).
The first set began back and forth with Cioffi taking a 3-2 lead. He then won the next three matches to take the set but it was closer than the 6-2 score indicated as Dillman made him work for each game.
"I thought I performed below where I should have," explained Dillman. "Going into the next set I tried to make up for it."
Then in the second set it was Dillman's turn. After taking a 2-1 lead he won the next two games to go up 4-1 and looked to be on his way to knotting the match up at 1-1.
"I felt pretty comfortable," Dillman said.
But Cioffi battled back. He began attacking the net more and it paid off as he would rally back and knot the match up at 4-all. The two continued to trade games and forced a tie-breaker when they tied at 6-6. Dillman took a 4-2 lead in the tie-breaker but Cioffi had one more push left and came back to win 7-4 and take the set 7-6 to earn a state berth and reach the finals.
"Cioffi's a great player and great players find a way to come back," remarked Dillman.
Despite his second setback in a row, Dillman was happy to reach the semi-finals two years in a row.
"It's a great experience," he said. "I really like coming back. I was hoping for a better result."
Ed Weaver is the owner of Circle W Sports in Wellsboro, PA, is the Sports Director for The Home Page Network and the creator of WellsboroAthletics.com and WellsboroFootball.com. You can follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.
