For the first time in school history, Freedom High School's boys tennis team were crowned district champions after defeating Parkland 3-1 at the District XI Class AAA Team Tennis Championships on Saturday at Winning Touch in Allentown.

Freedom's number three singles player, Ross Sonnenblick, said, "It's unbelievably awesome. I'd love to say we acted in a more dignified fashion, but yes, we were just screeching and jumping."

The Patriots swept the Trojans in all singles matches.

"Parkland has an unparalleled degree of prestige, a Goliath sort of team. We were believing and seeing past their credentials, and if we could execute, we could beat them," said Sonnenblick.

Andrew Sinai defeated Nick Kshatri 6-3, 6-3, Aidan Bodeo-Lomicky defeated Nate Lyman 6-3, 6-3, and Sonnenblick defeated Peter Harrison 6-4, 6-0.

Freedom's doubles team of Ronak Desai and Jack Fried lost to Aneesh Kapoor and Alex Wu 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

Matt Connors and Jon Fiorentino, also playing doubles for the Patriots, won the first set of their match against Kishan Unjia and Nick Hawk in a tiebreaker, but did not finish the match because the district title had already been won.

Throughout the district final, Freedom coach Jeff Young ran back and forth between matches, reporting the scores of other Freedom players.

"For example, when I was down 4-3, the doubles teams were making comebacks, and that knowledge reinvigorated me," Sonnenblick said. "Having the assurance they were putting up fights lifted a weight off our shoulders."

The district final was the second match played by Freedom's number one singles player, Sinai, since suffering a concussion at the EPC Tournament.

"It was a total bummer, but it was only a couple matches," Sinai said.

Sinai's first match back from injury was last week when the Patriots defeated Stroudsburg in the district semifinal 4-1.

The Patriots swept the Mountaineers in singles with Sinai winning 6-0, 6-0, Bodeo-Lomicky winning 6-0, 6-3, and Sonnenblick winning 6-0, 6-0.

It was in doubles that the matches were the most challenging with Connors and Fiorentino falling 0-6, 6-7 (1-7), and in the last completed match of the day, all eyes were on Fried and Desai who won 6-4, 7-5.

"At some points, it gets a bit much, but in the last game, we were on a roll, and it energized us," said Desai.

Fried, however, has come to love the attention.

"In the beginning of the second set, we hit a rough patch, and they were ahead. It took awhile to get back even with them. It took us a little time to hit around them," Fried said. "They had intense net play, so we brought it to them."

The Freedom Patriots will have played their first match in the PIAA State Team Tennis Tournament on Tuesday, past Press deadlines, against Council Rock North at Winning Touch.