Senior Braden Yokopenic’s last WPIAL singles playoffs came to an end on Tuesday. 

Yokopenic was seeded 15th place and had to play second seed Anthony Lauder from Moon High School. Yokopenic lost 10-2. 

However, he is proud of his performance throughout WPIAL qualifying and the tournament. 

“I feel like I played much better and I stayed cool mentally,” he said. “My takeaways are that I need to continue to work on my consistency and not be impatient.”

Yokopenic felt that his strength was his serving. 

“I won a lot of my points off of good serves,” he said.

Though his shoulder injury is not as much of an issue as last year, he still is not performing at the level he was before. 

“My injury is still somewhat of an obstacle because I’m not as free with my swings as I used to be,” he said. 

Even though WPIALs is over for him, Yokopenic is looking forward to finishing out his senior season on the Baldwin tennis team.

“I’m looking forward to spending time with my team for the rest of the season,” he said. 

For next year, Yokopenic plans to attend Saint Vincent College to continue to play tennis and get a degree in cyber security. 

“I am excited to keep playing tennis and I am excited to meet my new team,” he said. 

Yokopenic offered advice for future Baldwin players: “Be competitive, but also have fun and don’t overwork yourself.”