In the first city rivalry tennis match of the season, Freedom defeated Bethlehem Catholic 5-2 last week.

The Patriots won all their singles matches as Andrew Sinai defeated Niko Franekic 6-1, 6-0, Ross Sonnenblick defeated Ryan Schmidt 6-2, 6-2, and Aidan Bodeo-Lomicky defeated Peter Demyan 6-2, 6-2.

Regarding the match at number two singles, where Sonnenblick and Schmidt have faced each other for three years, Sonnenblick said, "We've both gotten better. We had lots of contentious points, but all three years our scores have been pretty comparable."

Becahi won two doubles matches: Andrew Kaeser and Ryan Zeiner defeated Ben Christianson and Nainjot Singh 8-1, and John Corley and Luke Mesko defeated Ronak Desai and Jack Fried 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.

Arguably the most personal victory came at number three doubles where Freedom's Matt Connors and Jonathan Fiorentino defeated Becahi's Yingyuan Gao and David Napierkowski 6-1, 7-5.

As Sonnenblick explained, the outcomes of Freedom's matches for the last two years against Becahi came down to Connors's result. Both years, the Patriots lost.

"He lost in close set tiebreakers, so I think he wanted to avenge the two season defeats. I believe it was a mental battle [for Matt Connors] because those matches were tantalizingly close and lost," said Sonnenblick.

Freedom then won at number four doubles where Michael Buchner and Jonathan Chu defeated Hesshanth Jaydranghan and Jack Jiang 6-4, 6-1.

Sonnenblick characterized this year's Patriots as having high expectations and excellent chemistry.

"Our singles are solid, and we have a lot of experience on doubles. We expect to be competitive in every match and go toe-to-toe with the Parkland, Emmaus and Stroudsburgs of the world. We have a lot of mutual belief, and we're working toward a common goal," he said.