It turned into an exceptional district tournament for Natalia Pedraza and Noel Yacoub as they won two matches en route to the best finish for a Whitehall doubles team in a number of years.

The pair made it all the way to the quarterfinals in the District 11 AAA bracket before being ousted by the eventual champs from Freedom, Natalie Sinai and Rebecca Packo.

Pedraza and Yacoub opened the tourney defeating Northampton’s Shannon Reinhard and Liz Moore. They defeated the Kid duo 6-3, 6-4, setting up a match against Liberty’s Paige Simons and Julia Zheng. The Hurricane pair entered the D-11 tourney as the eighth seed. The Zephs, who were unseeded, defeated the ’Cane combo in three sets. They won the first set 6-1, but dropped the second set, 3-6. That’s when they kicked it into overdrive, winning 6-3 in the decisive third set. The pair stayed resilient, bouncing back to play a third set in the match which they rallied to win, paving the way for their appearance in the quarterfinals. Their run ended when they lost 6-1, 6-0 to Sinai and Packo.

“It was really the highlight of the season for them,” said head coach Alex Green.

The tandem of Catherine Chen and Heylee Chan also participated in the tourney. They drew the Freedom pair of Anjali and Olivia Chhugani, losing in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.

In the singles round of the D-11 tourney, Pedraza faced East Stroudsburg North’s Kaitlin Grogg. She lost in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. Grogg made it all the way to the semifinals before being eliminated by Freedom’s Sinai.

With the district tournament completed, the girls tennis season is now over. They finished 6-9 and will now look to build on that success heading into next season. With most of their roster returning, the future looks extremely bright for the Zephyrs.