Bethlehem Catholic High School tennis players, Niko Franekic and Ryan Schmidt, advanced to the quarterfinal round of the District XI Class AA Doubles Tennis Tournament last week, after defeating Wilson, 6-1, 6-1, and Salisbury, 6-0, 4-6, 6-4.

Franekic, Becahi's number one singles player, and Schmidt, Becahi's number two singles player, had paired up only two times before, but in the tournament's first round at Parkland High School, Franekic and Schmidt defeated Wilson's Noah Dombrowski and Sam Veres, 6-1, 6-1.

"We both served well, so the return wasn't going to be too great," Franekic said regarding the Wilson match.S

Playing Salisbury in the second round was more challenging for the Hawks.

"[In the first set], they made a decent amount of errors, and we were playing well, but they weren't in the groove yet," said Franekic.

Strategies changed in the second set.

Schmidt said, "They mixed it up, and we had to change the way we played a bit. They started lobbing, and we started hitting to their backhands."

The Hawks rediscovered their form in the third set, winning the match and advancing to the quarterfinals where they were eventually defeated by Giovanni Mowery and Francesco Mowery of Notre Game Green Pond, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

"I played Francesco the week before, and we played the first set really well, like we had nothing to lose. It was five all, and we got a break on Fran's serve, and then they broke our serve which forced the tiebreak," said Schmidt.

Like Schmidt and Franekic, the Mowery brothers are typically singles players.

Franekic said, "We thought maybe it was something we could exploit. They missed some overheads and volleys. It was just a matter of a few points here and there."

Both Franekic and Schmidt agreed that the score of the second set did not reflect the actual play.

"There were four deuce games, and it was a lot closer than the score," said Schmidt.

Liberty High School's Dan Lynn and Brendan Cunningham also advanced to quarterfinals after defeating Allen's Ian Miller and Nate Stuart, 6-2, 6-0, and Parkland's Peter Sohn and Aneesh Kapoor, 7-5, 6-1, before losing to Pleasant Valley's Jon White and Jon Walmach, 6-0, 6-1.