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Point after point, set after set, match after match, Brad Straub has approached the game of tennis the same way.

Focus on the here and now, not the future. Be concerned with each shot as its own individual entity, not all of them as a whole.

"I have to worry about what's at hand," said Straub, the No. 2 player for Butler High School's boys tennis team. "I just worry about winning that game."

His mental approach, cultivated over the years, has served the senior well. It has also put him in some lofty company at Butler.

Straub recently broke the school record for singles wins in a career, passing. Pete Steenbergen, who won all 52 of his singles matches from 1970 to 1973.

Steenbergen recently was inducted into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Straub is now 55-11 in singles matches in his career.

Being in such select company has Straub's head spinning more than a 100-mph serve ever could.

"It is mind-boggling," Straub said. "I never thought about passing the record until this year."

Straub sneaked up on the record much like he sneaked up on his opponents during his three-plus years playing tennis for the Golden Tornado.

There isn't one area of Straub's game that elicits wows from opponents, although his strength is his solid and consistent groundstrokes.

He built his career on being steady, a metronome that always keeps perfect rhythm.

"I would say the first word that comes to mind is consistent," said second-year Butler coach Aaron Wils. "I have had the joy of seeing him play the last two years. He brings his A game every single time."

Straub has played No. 1 singles very sparingly during his four years at Butler. Instead, he was slotted regularly at No. 2 and No. 3.

He's never qualified for the WPIAL singles tournament, although Monday he will team with Butler's No. 1 singles player Ike Backstrom, in the WPIAL doubles tournament.

He doesn't have the resume that most top-notch high school tennis players do.

But that doesn't diminish what he has accomplished, Straub said.

"I still get wins," he said. "Coach has told me I'm a guaranteed win. That's hard to find. You need a guy like that to build your team around."

There are no guaranteed wins when Straub plays against his own family.

Brother Jeff was a No. 1 singles standout for Butler during his junior and senior seasons, and his father, Jeff Sr., was also an accomplished tennis player.

That made making a mark for himself even harder and even more desirable for Brad Straub.

"He was one heck of a player," Straub said of his brother. "I had some big shoes to fill."

Straub said the biggest strides he made from his freshman season to now was with his mental game.

He wanted to prove himself early in his freshman season and learned quickly that he had to approach each match with mental toughness.

"I wanted to prove I belonged with the big boys," he said. "Now I am one of the big boys."

An incident against North Allegheny his freshman season put him on the path to the school record.

Straub was pushed into the No. 1 singles slot, but NA's No. 1 bowed out.

The No. 2 player, who Straub had defeated earlier in the season, moved up and talked trash.

"He told me, 'Don't worry. I'll beat you like the No. 1 would have,'" Straub said. "I went out and won in three sets. I think I got some respect."

Straub was a thorn in the side of North Allegheny throughout his career.

"NA is going to be glad to get rid of me," Straub said.

But Butler and Wils certainly aren't.

"Brad has been the face of Butler tennis for four years," Wils said. "What he has accomplished, the record he broke, is just phenomenal."