Chelsea Gibson has risen to the top of the Allegheny Mountain District tennis rankings.

And the incoming Knoch High School sophomore did so under trying circumstances.

Gibson, 15, won the Wheeling (W.Va.) Oglebay Junior Tournament June 30, one day after close friend Troy Zitzman was killed in a motorcycle accident.

"He was one of Chelsea's biggest supporters," her mother, Sally Gibson, said. "He was at her semifinal match in that tournament and told her he'd see her in the finals match.

"Chelsea won that last match as a tribute to him."

Gibson had defeated Britney Wolfe, 6-0, 6-1, in the semifinals. But she dropped the first set of the title match, 0-6, to Nicole Andreini.

"Between sets, I just kind of sat there and thought of everything that had happened to my friend," Gibson said. "I thought if I want to come back, I've got to keep my head together.

"I thought about him telling me he wanted me to win the championship and I just got stronger."

Gibson won the final two sets, 6-4, 6-3, to win the tournament and ascend to the top of the girls age 16 Allegheny Mountain District rankings of the United States Tennis Association.

She will play in that division for the next two years. The top 100 players are ranked in each division by each USTA district.

"I was really proud of her performance at the Wheeling Tournament," said George Jupin, coach of the Elite Tennis Academy at Oxford Athletic Club in Wexford. "She really showed she has the stuff it takes to win the big matches if she could prevail under these circumstances.

"She is going to be a great one. Up until that point, I never saw the maturity to hang in and work through adversity."

Gibson has been showing such promise for quite some time now. Her first USTA match was in Fox Chapel at age 9. She placed third in that tournament.

As a freshman on the Knoch girls tennis team, Gibson lost only one regular season match in singles. She played doubles with Natalie Jenereski and reached the WPIAL semifinals. Jenereski will be a senior this year.

"My goals this fall are to qualify for WPIAL singles and go as far as I can," Gibson said. "I feel like we can win WPIAL doubles."

Gibson's mother works at the Oxford Athletic Club and Chelsea plays there every day. She competes in two tournaments per month.

"She's been playing year-round, four or five times a week, for three years now," her mother said.

Gibson stands only 5-foot-6 and "is very lean," her mother said.

"Her timing makes her good," she said. "She knows the game and she can anticipate well. And she hits the ball hard for someone her size."

Gibson began playing tennis at age 7 after watching others play in a club.

"I thought it was pretty cool," she said. "I caught on to it pretty easily and began taking lessons. I was more successful than I thought I'd be and kept working at it.

"I need to work mostly on my mental game. I have to keep my head in matches and not lose my cool."

Despite her early success in the sport, Gibson says she has no visions of turning pro down the road.

"I want to use tennis to get an education," she said. "My hope is to play Division I or II college tennis. That would be a blast."

"Chelsea's working toward scholarship money," her mother said. "That's what she wants."

Gibson will compete in the Chambersburg Junior Open, a USTA sectional ranking tournament, at the end of the month.