Before Mount Pleasant High School senior Kyle Bradley graduated this spring, he and his younger brother, Eric, had their minds set on playing in a PIAA doubles tournament together.

And nothing -- not a shot at singles glory, not the fact Eric plays baseball -- was going to stand in their way.

The Bradley brothers accomplished their goal when they took third place at the WPIAL Class AA doubles tournament last week, thereby earning one of the WPIAL's three berths in the PIAA championships.

"It was a great accomplishment," Kyle said, "but to do it with my brother makes it so much more memorable."

"Me and Kyle, we practice all the time with our brothers and sisters," Eric Bradley said. "Our whole family plays tennis and playing against them is such good practice.

"We knew if we worked hard and stuff, we would have a good shot making it to states. Luckily, we played well at the WPIAL tournament and made it there."

In the middle of the pack of a group of seven siblings ranging in age from 11 to 21, Kyle and Eric train together at the Club 4 Life in Monroeville and get in plenty of hitting with their siblings and parents.

Kyle plays first singles in the regular lineup and Eric second.

Each played in the WPIAL doubles tournament last season -- but they were on separate teams. Kyle also qualified for the WPIAL singles tournament last season and for doubles in 2006, but they never had a chance to play with each other at the event and desperately wanted to before Kyle graduated.

That the Bradleys will compete May 23-24 at the Hershey Racquet Club was achieved despite some obstacles.

First off, Eric Bradley plays for the Vikings' baseball team, which also plays in the spring. That creates unusual scenarios like the one that played out Monday in which Eric played in the Vikings' first-round WPIAL playoff match -- winning his match -- by taking the court first at 3 p.m., then making his way to the Mount Pleasant baseball field, where he played in the 4 p.m. game against Greensburg Salem.

"It would be hard," Eric said, "but the coaches have been real good about scheduling me to go to each."

Another stumbling block for the Bradleys reaching the PIAA doubles tournament that was avoided was the potential for one -- or both -- of the two qualifying for the PIAA singles tournament by earning a top-three finish in the WPIAL singles tournament last month.

The Bradley brothers didn't tempt fate -- or themselves -- and declined to enter the Section 1-A singles tournament, which is the precursor to the WPIAL event.

Happily for Mount Pleasant, freshman David Cenker -- one of the two who took the place of the Bradleys -- won the section singles tournament despite being usually only a third singles player.

With Cenker and the Bradley brothers as sterling singles players -- that threesome had combined to lose only one individual match out of the more than 50 they had played this year before yesterday -- the Vikings went 16-0 during the regular season and defended their section championship.

Junior Scott Swank and sophomore Dan Barton fill the first doubles spot in the team lineup, and senior Justin DePalma and junior Nick Marhefka play second doubles. In a display of Mount Pleasant's depth, the Vikings have not lost a match at second doubles the past two seasons.

Cenker and DePalma were runners-up to the Bradleys in the section doubles tournament and advanced to the WPIAL quarterfinals last week.

In the WPIAL team tournament, the Vikings won their first-round match, 4-1, against Riverview Monday. The No. 2 seed in the event, they were to play Hampton in the quarterfinals yesterday. The semifinals are scheduled for today and the finals and consolation match tomorrow.

The top three teams in the WPIAL advance to the PIAA tournament.