Two longtime friends met at Lehigh University in the District 11 Class AAA singles championship on Monday. Parkland's Nick Kshatri, the tournament's top seed, went up against Matt FitzMaurice of Emmaus, who was seeded second. The two have had some impressive matches during their high school careers and Monday's match was no different. This time, it was FitzMaurice coming away with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win and a trip to the PIAA Tournament in Hershey later this month.

Kshatri captured a hard-fought first set using a strong serve and big forehand to keep FitzMaurice from gaining much traction. Both players also had to deal with some questionable calls, but Kshatri seemed to shake them off quickly and not let them affect his play, while FitzMaurice seemed to be more bothered by them.

In the second set, FitzMaurice held a 5-2 lead, but Kshatri battled back and broke serve in the ninth game of the set, making it a 5-4 match. FitzMaurice settled down and broke Kshatri's serve to clinch the set, sending the match to a third and final set. In the final set, FitzMaurice was able to break serve twice, the second time coming when he was up 4-1. Down 5-1, Kshatri still showed determination, but FitzMaurice held serve and won the final set.

"The first set was great," said Kshatri. "I played really well in the first set. The second set was close and I probably should have come back. I think I wasn't getting enough to his backhand. He was really running me around with his forehand and that was probably the deal-breaker there."

FitzMaurice admitted that he knew he had to force Kshatri to use his backhand more than he was able to in the first set, because of the strength of the forehand shot.

The two main turning points in the match were when FitzMaurice was able to break serve at key points in the second and third sets.

"When I got it back to 4-5 [in the second set], he was on serve, but I at least thought I had a shot at coming back to win it, but it didn't work out that way," said Kshatri.

In the third set, FitzMaurice's service break at 4-1 seemingly put the match away for the Emmaus junior.

"That was a double-break and he's serving for the match," said Kshatri. "So that was the game right there where I needed to hold serve to stay in the match."

When Kshatri and FitzMaurice met earlier this season, the match wasn't indicative of their usual matches because FitzMaurice was battling a shoulder injury. After that match, Kshatri talked glowingly about his friend and how he continued to battle through the match when he was obviously in pain. After this win, FitzMaurice talked about how strong of a player Kshatri is and how much respect he has for him, saying that even when he was up 5-1, he couldn't let up because of Kshatri's ability to battle back.

"There was not a point in that match that he didn't have me worried or stressed," said FitzMaurice. "He's the kind of player you can be up 5-0, 40-love and he will come back and make it happen and come out on top, so I couldn't really rest at all, especially in that first set."

Parkland coach Michael Hingston was also impressed with how the two players battled and noted that he thought his player's comeback in the second set was going to lead to a trip to states for Kshatri.

"I was very confident at 4-5, with him serving to try to get it to five-all; I would have liked his chances there," said Hingston. "Matt hung in there and figured out a way to break the serve and then he really had the momentum and it carried over, because he was serving first then. Both these guys served pretty well today and there weren't a lot of break opportunities."

Parkland's Nate Lyman and Peter Harrison also competed in the district singles tournament.

Lyman earned the No. 7 seed and won his first two matches. He beat Erik Ammerman of Pleasant Valley, 6-1, 6-0 in the first round and dispatched of Stroudsburg's Danny Procaccino, 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinal round.

Lyman met FitzMaurice in the semifinals and fell 6-10, 6-0.

Harrison dropped his opening match, but took his opponent three sets. He lost 4-6, 6-2, 10-1 to No. 6 seed Will Kyaw of East Stroudsburg North.