During the Great California Gold Rush, the saying “Gold or bust” became the battle cry of many pioneers. Who knew that almost 170 years later two cousins from Salisbury would pick up the same cry for their trip to the PIAA Tennis Tournament.

John Yurconic and Mason Groff were happy to have District 11 Championship gold around their necks for the second straight year, but they weren’t really in celebration mode after beating Moravian Academy’s Abbhi Sekar and Oliver Scott last week in the district finals. Instead, they’re focused on a slightly shinier piece of gold that would come from the PIAA.

“It’s basically gold or bust this year,” said Yurconic. “Last year, we played well and we did well, but there’s more determination and drive with us this time around.”

The duo, who are both now juniors, finished third in states last year and immediately set out to make themselves better with a return trip to Hershey as just the first step in becoming the best tennis duo in Pennsylvania. Yurconic and Groff worked their way through the district tournament in impressive fashion, going through the bracket without losing a set. In their five matches, they lost just 11 games, five of which came in their 6-3, 6-2 win over Sekar and Scott.

“We felt all along that we could do more than we did last year,” said Groff. “Just getting back to states is great, but it’s not really what we want, we definitely want to be state champions.”

In both of their division championships, the cousins downed teams from Moravian Academy, having beaten Sekar and Adam Kramer in last year’s finals match to advance to states. This time around, they jumped out to early leads and never really gave Sekar and Scott much of a chance to get back into the match.

After jumping out to a quick lead in the opening set, Yurconic and Groff stretched their lead to 5-2 before Moravian Academy held serve to make it 5-3. From there, the Salisbury team simply held its own serve and took the opening set.

In the second set, Moravian Academy came out strong to win the first game, but soon trailed by the same 5-2 score as in the first set. From there, it was just a matter of Salisbury finishing them off for a straight-set victory.

“They’re much more aggressive and they’ve got more intensity to their game this year than they did last year,” said Falcon head coach Rob Benson. “They know they’re going to need that down the road and they’ve just learned to play a more aggressive style of tennis.”

“I think our net play is the biggest improvement,” said Yurconic, with Groff shaking his head in agreement. “We’ve gotten much more confident and we’re not laying back as much as we did before. Now, we look to go right at people and attack more.”

Last year, Adam Bahney and Galen McNaughton from Eastern Lebanon County High School (ELCO) downed Yurconic and Groff in the semifinals and went on to win states. Both players graduated last season, leaving a void at the top spot that Yurconic and Groff look to fill.

“When you consider how far they went last year and how much better they are this year, there’s every reason to believe that they can win states,” said Benson. “All year, they’ve had that as a goal, not just to get back to states, but to make it all the way this time. They should feel good about their chances.”

Tournament play doesn’t open until May 27 and Yurconic and Groff will play the champions from District 9, which covers from Potter to Clarion Counties in the northern part of Pennsylvania. The state tournament will be played at Hershey Racquet Club.