Playing No. 1 singles for St. Bonaventure University, Lakewood native Chris Post recorded an unbelievable comeback in the semifinals to help the Bonnies land a berth in the 2009 Atlantic 10 Tournament championship for the first time since 2003. Photo courtesy of St. Bonaventure University Athletics

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article appeared in The Post-Journal on May 3, 2009. With the announcement earlier this week that Lakewood native and Southwestern Central School graduate Chris Post will be inducted into the St. Bonaventure University Athletics Hall of Fame on Feb. 14, it was deemed appropriate to run this story again.

Here’s a memo to all area athletes.

When you’re in the middle of competition in your chosen sport and you’re having a tough day, may I offer some advice: Think of Chris Post, the Lakewood resident and No. 1 singles player on the St. Bonaventure University tennis team.

I guarantee you’ll feel better immediately and, more than likely, you’ll learn from the sophomore with the backwards hat how to recapture your game, your confidence, and get a shot of sportsmanship to boot.

Shoot, even I — a middle-aged, nonathletic sportswriter — felt inspired after talking with him earlier this week.

It’s hard not to be after hearing about his remarkable performance last weekend at the Atlantic 10 Championships at the Club 4 Life in Pittsburgh.

“Oh, man, hopefully it will come back to me,” said Post via cellphone. “The past few days have been quite a blur.”

OK, I’ll do my best to add some focus.

Playing top-seeded George Washington University in the semifinals and the match tied 3-3, No. 4 St. Bonaventure pinned its hopes to advance to the championship squarely on Post in his No. 1 singles match against Yan Levinski.

Post took the first set 6-4, but Levinski, who has a quarterfinal appearance in the Australian Open Juniors on his resume, responded with a 6-4 win to force the third and final set. And when Levinski built a 5-2 lead, it appeared that he would earn his team the decisive point.

Somebody forgot to inform Post.

“I was in the moment,” he said. “Everything just felt right. Like I told my teammates and my Dad, when I got down love-40 at 5-2, I thought this really isn’t that big a deal. I thought I could come back. I just had to take it one point at a time.”

Post closed to within 15-40, but Levinski made a beautiful volley that no one in the crowd of about 150 thought Post could return.

“He hit a really solid shot,” Post said, “and I just stuck my racquet out.”

With the match and the Bonnies’ season literally hanging in the balance, the ball barely cleared the net.

“I just started laughing,” Post said.

Game on.

Ultimately, he came all the way back to force a tiebreaker and, despite battling cramps, eventually — no pun intended — posted a wild 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (3) victory and an opportunity for the first Bonnies’ championship since 2003.

When the 2007 Southwestern Central School graduate recorded the final point, his teammates mobbed him, including longtime friend Jon Luce of Bemus Point.

“Everybody just stormed the court,” Post said. “I threw my hands up in the air. It was a great moment.”

Getting to the locker room was a different story.

“I got down to stretch and everything cramped up,” Post said. “You could see cramps in my legs. … I’ve never had that pain before.”

The trainer took a look at him and, realizing there was nothing he could do, summoned an ambulance. Post was transported to a Pittsburgh hospital, was hooked to an IV and, an hour or two later, was back with his teammates at their hotel.

The next morning, still stiff from the cramping the day before, Post won the first set in impressive fashion against Xavier’s Doug Matthews 6-1; lost the second set 6-3; and was still playing when the Musketeers, the defending champions, picked up the tournament-clinching fourth point and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

“We were just drained,” Post said. “That 5 1/2-hour match (against George Washington) took so much out of us. … We all kind of went into it like there was no way we were going to lose, but then we lost. It would have been sweet if we had pulled that out. It would have been an even better story.”

As it turned out, the feel-good stories didn’t end in Pittsburgh.

Three days later, Post, ever the sportsman, wrote an email to Xavier head coach Eric Toth.

I just wanted to wish you guys good luck at NCAAs. It will be really neat getting to play a big school like Ohio State. I also wanted to say congratulations on a good year, and that I have a lot of respect for you and your guys on the court. Even though we lost, I was glad that you guys won, and did it with class. I think that is what it should be all about. Look forward to seeing you next season.

The next morning, Toth emailed Post back.

What you did over the weekend was staggering. First off, your game has improved tremendously this year from battling your opposition’s number one every time you took the court this season. Your match with Levinski certainly reflected that, how you were beating him his comfort zone, from the baseline. Yan is the real deal. Then, to come back the way you did battling the pressure of keeping your team’s season alive, fighting through cramps, fatigue and whatever else you were dealing with was one of the greatest performances I have ever seen with so much on the line.

I’ll be honest with you. I thought we would be in great shape at number one on Sunday. I felt you would have very little in the tank to deal with Doug’s grinding style. You certainly proved me wrong by just totally taking it to Doug in that first set. It was equally impressive to what you had done the previous day. It is a total credit to what you have inside of you. You earned at least one vote from me for the A-10’s Most Outstanding Performer.

“I appreciate the Xavier coach and everything he said,” Post admitted, “but that GW match is going to go down in history. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. Whenever I go back to Bona and see my old teammates, that’s what we’re going to talk about.”