Dillman falls in District IV semifinals

By: Ed Weaver  /  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."