If nothing else, Freedom tennis players, Ross Sonnenblick and Aidan Bodeo-Lomicky, provided a wake-up call to Pleasant Valley's Jon White and Erik Ammerman, barely losing to the Bears 4-6, 5-7 at the District XI Class AAA Doubles Tennis Tournament last Friday at Parkland High School.

However, there was something else for the Patriots, two bronze medals for their tournament performance, losing only to the number two seeded Pleasant Valley after defeating Whitehall's doubles team 6-1, 6-0, Bangor's 6-2, 6-3, and Liberty's 6-1, 6-3.

"Losing the lead [in the first set against Pleasant Valley] was unfortunate, and maybe we both got a little tight, but at the end of the day, we get a nice, shiny bronze medal," Sonnenblick said.

With nothing to lose, the Patriots took control from the onset, having faith in each others' strengths, the smart, fast, team leader in Sonnenblick, and the solid, technically clean Bodeo-Lomicky.

Eventually the Patriots led 4-1 with a combination of aggressive shots on their part and the Bears hitting multiple shots into the net. Soon after, though, White and Ammerman inched their way back to take the first set.

In the second set, the Patriots led 2-0, but this time, the Bears did not wait long before staging their comeback.

"Jon, especially, hit so hard with a lot of top spin, and Erik, he was superconsistent," said Sonnenblick.

At the end of the day, it was agreed by many that the match could have gone either way.

Freedom coach Jeff Young said, "It was absolutely very streaky. We began to make more unforced errors when the other team stopped."

Although it appeared that Pleasant Valley was trying to move Sonnenblick around, which he handled well, it was more a matter of where than who.

"Aidan was at the net a lot, and Ross is very consistent. Everyone in the district knows that," said Young.

That consistency on the part of both Sonnenblick and Bodeo-Lomicky was evident in their match against Dan Lynn and Milind Jagota from Liberty.

Bodeo-Lomicky said, "We knew we needed to stay calm, and I think we did."

For the Hurricanes, it was difficult to find obvious weaknesses in the Patriots, who executed their game plan well, being aggressive and solid on ground strokes.

"I think we played well, but I had more unforced errors," said Jagota.

Earlier in the week, the Hurricanes survived a close call, defeating the doubles team from Stroudsburg 6-1, 4-6, 12-10, and also defeated East Stroudsburg North 6-0, 6-1.

"[Against Stroudsburg] we tightened up in the second set. By the time we went to tiebreaker, we still hadn't gotten out of our stupor," Jagota said.

Liberty's Alex Burlew and Evan Burlew also competed in the district tournament, losing to Nazareth 6-3, 6-1, and Luke Conrad and Jesse Claudio, also for the Hurricanes, lost to Parkland 6-0, 6-2.

Freedom's Jack Fried and Ronak Desai lost to Stroudsburg 6-1, 6-2, and Matt Connors and Jon Fiorentino lost to Emmaus 6-4, 6-2.