Freedom's Flannery Johnston and Liberty's Samantha Peterson have gone head-to-head before, but this time Johnston prevailed 10-8 to take third place while Peterson took fourth in number one singles at the East Penn Conference Girls Tennis Championships on Saturday at Parkland High School.

Johnston said, "I'm happy to come out with the win. Last year I got fourth, so it was nice to go up."

Peterson placed second last year.

"I was excited to play Flannery, actually, because we're always very evenly matched. I think I just got tired," said Peterson. "My ground strokes were good. I moved her around a lot to get ahead."

Peterson's first match of the tournament resulted in an 8-1 victory over East Stroudsburg North, followed by an 8-7 victory over Northampton. An 8-10 loss against Allentown Central Catholic moved Peterson into consolations.

"The toughest match, physically, was Central. I've played her a lot and usually lose, and I really wanted to beat her this time, but my volleys were working pretty well," she said.

Johnston's first match of the tournament resulted in an 8-0 victory over Dieruff, followed by an 8-2 victory over Pleasant Valley. A 2-10 loss to East Stroudsburg South ultimately pitted Johnston against Peterson for the first time this season. The two will have faced off again this Tuesday during Freedom and Liberty's final match of the regular season, past Press deadlines.

"The East Stroudsburg South match was a struggle," said Johnston.

After Johnston's first few games against Peterson, all was going well, until the Freedom senior got close to the win at 8-5.

"All of a sudden, I didn't know what to do. [Coach Mark] Sigmon doesn't really give me a strategy, just the number to win. It's a way for me to look at it differently," Johnston said. "I think it was a lot of lobs I used, just to recover. The longer points were wearing me out."