SAXONBURG— After dating for nearly two years, Brandon Anandan and Elise Held are proving to be a pretty good match.

They're not a bad match on the tennis court, either.

Saxonburg resident and cyber-schooled Anandan recently teamed with Held, an incoming junior at Vincentian Academy, to win the Middle States mixed doubles event at the National Collegiate Clay Court Championships in Mount Lebanon.

The event is touted as the oldest nonprofessional tennis tournament in the United States. Also known as the West Penn Amateur, it has been around for more than 100 years.

It was the second time Anandan and Held played mixed doubles in a tournament together. They won the Glenn Creek event in the South Hills last winter.

"There aren't a lot of mixed doubles tournaments out there,"Anandan said. "That first one (Glenn Creek) wasn't all that big, but this other one meant a lot."

Anandan and Held entered the national event at the last minute. Playing in his first Futures tournament, Anandan lost in the opening round and asked the (National Collegiate Clay Court Championships) director if he could play mixed doubles.

"They normally don't let you play in both the Futures and the West Penn, but they allowed us to sign up. We thought it'd be fun,"Anandan said.

The duo breezed through the 32-team field, defeating personal rivals Casey Watt and Kimmy Borza 8-2 in the semifinals.

In the finals, Anandan and Held defeated Joshua Ferraccio of Shady Side Academy and Kellie Schmitt — the No. 1 player at Marshall University — 8-2 as well.

"Casey and Brandon are former teammates at Pine-Richland and compete against each other at (Lake Vue Athletic Club) all the time,"Held said. "Kimmy and I are good friends and we've played each other a number of times."

Held and Borza traveled to St. Louis last weekend to compete in the U.S. Tennis AssociationZone tournament. Held is ranked 300th in the nation by the USTA.

After winning in Mount Lebanon, Anandan and Held will have their names engraved on the Betty Rae Gray Trophy.

Held has won the WPIALgirls doubles championship at Vincentian while Anandan reached the WPIALboys singles finals in 2007 as a member of Knoch's tennis team.

Both continue to have high aspirations in the sport.

Anandan, 18, is taking a year off to compete on the Futures Tour, which he said "is like the minor leagues of professional tennis."

"I did well in some qualifying matches in Florida and, hopefully, I can fare well in some tournaments and raise my stock toward a college scholarship next year," he said.

The player who defeated Anandan in his first Futures match reached the quarterfinals of that event, eventually losing to a member of the University of Georgia's NCAAchampionship team.

"That made me feel a little better about myself,"Anandan said.

Held recently competed in a junior tournament in Virginia Beach, where she won a match. She has been playing with a shoulder injury.

Like Anandan, she also hopes to attain a Division Icollege scholarship.

"That's my goal down the road," she said. "Ihope to be playing this game for a long time."