Nothing was certain during last week’s tennis match between Freedom and Liberty, that is, until Dan Lynn and Luke Conrad won at number one doubles against Aidan Bodeo-Lomicky and Ross Sonnenblick to secure the Hurricanes’ 4-3 victory over the Patriots.

“I’m relieved,” Conrad said. “We were definitely the underdogs.”

Not only had Freedom defeated Liberty season after season in recent years, but earlier in the day, Lynn lost to Bodeo-Lomicky at number one singles 4-6, 1-6, and Conrad lost to Sonnenblick at number two singles 1-6, 0-6. In addition, Lynn and Conrad lost to Bodeo-Lomicky and Sonnenblick in a recent practice doubles match.

“They might have had more pressure,” Lynn said. “It feels great.”

For most of their doubles match, Lynn and Conrad did not know the team score was 3-3. What they did know was that teammate, Jacob Berg, had defeated Ronak Desai at three singles 6-2, 7-5. They also knew teammates, Jesse Claudio and Milind Jagota, had lost to Jon Fiorentino and Jon Chu at two doubles 3-6, 6-2, 4-6.

As play went on, teammates, Duke Jin and Gavin Snyder, defeated Austin Negron and Joel Veneracion 6-1, 6-1 at three doubles, and Marc Burritt and Mike Noble defeated Justin Szaro and Chris Fereno 6-2, 6-7, 6-1 at four doubles.

“We didn’t know they won, and we tried to put other scores out of our minds,” said Conrad.

Lynn and Conrad went on to win the first set 6-4.

“After the first set, we just pretended it was a new match,” said Lynn.

The Hurricanes continued with their momentum and won the second set 6-4.

“We tried to create situations with a put-away shot,” Lynn said, “and Luke said my out wide serve is my best, so do that one.”

The Hurricanes swarmed the court in celebration after the final point was won.

“It was a tough situation, so I didn’t want to say too much [during the match],” said Liberty coach Leo Schnalzer. “Danny and Luke have wanted to play doubles and haven’t had much opportunity, but I think this is the first time they’ve faced a quality team in doubles.”

As Liberty’s four doubles match was a must-win for the Hurricanes, Freedom’s two doubles match was a must-win for the Patriots.

“[Claudio and Jagota] seemed to be very consistent, clean players, and really solid, not making many errors,” said Chu. “It seemed like we couldn’t punish them, so we had to play to our own strength.”

Fiorentino’s lobs and Chu’s net game were working well.

“The last game went to deuce, and I was thinking this is getting dangerous,” Chu said. “I’m very relieved.”

As expected, the pair did not want to lose to Liberty, especially Fiorentino, who had lost to the Hurricanes with his doubles partner last year.

“[Today] we made a change in the second set to stay back, and then we switched it back to one up and one back,” said Fiorentino. “They played much harder, but we were finishing balls pretty good at the net.”

At three singles, Desai came close to taking his match against Berg to three sets.

“My mental game changed in the second set,” Desai said. “I knew I didn’t have anything to lose, and I pushed forward from there.”

Also last week, Bethlehem Catholic scored a 4-3 victory over Northampton, which also came down to number one doubles when Jack Jiang and Colby Treadwell clinched the match for the Hawks with scores of 1-6, 6-4, 7-6.

Also winning for the Hawks against the Konkrete Kids were Henry Gao at two singles 6-7, 7-5, 6-3, Treadwell at three singles 6-3, 6-4, and Hesshanth Jeyaranghan and Grant Hicks at three doubles 6-2, 7-5.