LEWISTON – Uncle. Mercy. Deep, cleansing breath. I quit.

Those words sounded like Swahili to Brendan Kincaid’s ears, even as the Salisbury (Md.) University tennis player whispered some variation of them through gritted teeth to the chair umpire Friday morning at Wallach Tennis Center.

Locked in a superior first-round match at the NCAA Division III men’s tennis tournament, Kincaid’s legs collapsed long before his heart ever would have surrendered at Bates College.

“He deserved to win and I deserved to win,” the graduating senior said after retiring from a match with Oliver Gaines of Trinity University in Texas that was tied 3-3 in the third and decisive set. “It was just one of those things where, you know, it’s bad luck.”

Kincaid isn’t the first player to be carried off the court with a splint holding an ice pack to his badly cramped left calf. He is almost certainly the only one to reach this level, however, with the benefit of only one hand.

Born without a right forearm, Kincaid picked up a racket at age 14 and thrived in an arena where ambidexterity is almost essential.

“He just has the mental makeup,” Salisbury coach Randy Halfpap said. “He’s an athlete. He doesn’t need to be taught to work hard.”

One of Kincaid’s heroes is Jim Abbott, the former Major League Baseball pitcher also born without a right hand but with an otherworldly left arm.

Abbott once mailed a personal letter that ended up framed on a bedroom wall in Cambridge, Md. And like Abbott, the recipient of that handwritten pep talk grew up a multi-sport jock, apparent disadvantages be damned.

Late bloomer

Halfpap wound up a winner late in the recruiting process after Kincaid declined a scholarship to be a football kicker at Division I High Point in North Carolina. Kincaid also had a smattering of Division III schools interested in his dual services as a soccer and basketball player.

Salisbury, a 30-minute drive from his hometown, afforded Kincaid the opportunity to combine football with the game that became his true love.

“I didn’t start getting serious about (tennis) until I was maybe a junior in high school,” said Kincaid. “I think that’s why I’ve been able to get better each year. Some kids could burn out. I was just starting basically.”

This year marked the late bloomer’s second trip to the NCAA nationals. Kincaid lost in straight sets as a sophomore. For his encore journey, Kincaid also qualified for the doubles tournament with partner Scott Burtzlaff.

To watch Kincaid on the court by himself is to admire an artist. Opponents catch themselves doing double-takes and tailoring their game to attack his supposed limitations, often at their peril.

Kincaid’s style mimics the once-famous pitching motion of Abbott, who would keep his glove tucked under his right armpit and transfer it to his left hand in the split second after uncorking a fastball. Kincaid cradles the racket beneath his shoulder while bouncing the ball at his feet. Then he tosses the orb toward the heavens with authority, whisks the racket from its resting place and serves with a mighty whoosh.

“I respect him a lot,” said Gaines, the sixth-ranked player in the tournament. “That’s a tough way to play a game, you know? Just having to toss the ball, I can’t even imagine having to do that.”

The Natural

Gaines dropped the first set in a tiebreaker and fell into a 2-5 hole before finding his range against the relentless Kincaid.

A knowing smile creased Halfpap’s face throughout most of the grueling two hours and 20 minutes. He’s seen it before.

“To a lot of these guys it seems so obvious: just hit to his backhand. But No. 1, it’s trying to get it there, and once it gets there it’s not like it’s a bad backhand,” said the coach. “He’s very tricky to play, especially if it’s your first time ever playing him. It’s a mental thing. You see guys the way they treat him, they’re always super nice to him and that kind of thing.”

And when it’s over, they’re usually congratulating Kincaid on a win.

He was the starting point guard on a basketball team that reached the state final his senior year of high school. Add leading scorer on his soccer team, all-state football kicker and self-taught swimmer to that list of laurels. Oh, and Maryland state champion in doubles tennis.

College was no different. Last fall, Kincaid nailed a 46-yard field goal along with 44-of-48 extra points for the Gulls’ football team. As a junior, he tried 21 extra points and made them all.

“The guy I play may have better technique or better strokes than I do, but for the most part I feel like I’m one of the most athletic players on the court at all times,” Kincaid said. “And I’ve always been competitive. I don’t like to lose.”

Even as Kincaid spoke those words, he was surveying his internal clock. He’s played with a bum rotator cuff, even soldiered on through a match after running into a post at full speed. Fight through cramps, never.

With his scheduled doubles match four hours away, he hoped that a combination of time, water and potassium would cure the only physical limitation that mattered Friday.

“I just told my partner he’ll hit a winner every shot and we’ll be fine,” he said. “I’m going out there. They’re going to have to carry me off again.”