Southeastern Pa. tennis, bowling notes

Sam Silver, a junior at Friends' Central, came home with two tennis gold medals - one each in singles and doubles - from the 12th annual Pan American Maccabi Games, held Dec. 24 to Monday in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

His medals came in the 17-and-under junior division, in which he won all five singles and doubles matches he played. He beat Ben Soloway of Chicago, 6-3, 6-2, for the singles crown, then teamed with Sam Rice to win the doubles title over a Bolivian pair.

Silver, 16, was one of six boys chosen to represent Team USA in Brazil after winning the silver medal in singles and the gold medal in doubles at the International Maccabi tournament in Philadelphia last August.

The Brazil tournament was Silver's first experience on red clay courts.

"I'm used to hard courts," Silver said. "It's slower on the red clay courts, and the ball takes high bounces. I thought I played pretty well. It was a great experience. I knew very little about the tourney, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Riding high again. The Pennsbury boys' bowling team won the Suburban One League National Conference crown last season and went on to finish eighth in the state finals. But first-year coach Dave Nicol faced a daunting task at the end of the season.

"We lost six to graduation, my whole varsity team," Nicol explained. "We reloaded last year, however, with a group of underclassmen."

The Falcons have not lost a beat.

They are 16-0 in the Suburban One this season, and 27-1 overall. The only match they have lost was to North Penn by 15 pins, according to Nicol.

Sophomore Stephen Plenski and Matt Thompson, one of three seniors on the team, are leading the Falcons this season. Plenski, who had a 290 in his lone varsity start in the team's final match last season, has a 220 average. Thompson checks in at 202.

"I had another 290 this season," Plenski said. "I had a spare in the first frame, then struck out. It's frustrating. We're a good, young team, but going down the road, we're going to get even better."

"We have some good kids who want to bowl and want to learn," Nicol said.