Liberty’s doubles pairs, coached by Chris Conrad, were top medal winners at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Boys Tennis Tournament on April 19 at Freedom High School.

Leo Babbin and Elijah Quan were the No. 2 doubles gold medalists, initially winning the quarterfinal, 8-2, over Northampton’s Connor Retlick and Brett Bastian.

The Hurricane duo then went on to win the semifinal, 10-2, over Allentown Central Catholic’s Ian Abbadessa and Aryaan Chauhan, and the final, 10-5 over Parkland’s Ojas Karandikar and Yechan Cho.

“Honestly, it was a really clean match for us. In the beginning, we were missing some simple shots, but after that, we locked it in and won. I think it was our energy. They didn’t have it, so we brought it today,” said Babbin, noting that the Hurricanes expected a final match against Parkland or Freedom. “We figured, either way, we were gonna have some good competition.”

Babbin and Quan went to three sets during the regular season with both Freedom and Parkland, and won both matches.

“I think it was a good matchup with Parkland. I knew we could beat them,” said Quan. “It feels really great, knowing we’re on the top. We had a couple of down-the-line shots on the returns. Their serves are pretty strong, and today, we did a lot better getting them back and being more aggressive.”

Connor Ohl and Finn Brown were the No. 3 doubles gold medalists, initially winning the quarterfinal, 8-0, over Bethlehem Catholic’s Tyler Lennert and Jorge Herrera.

Ohl and Brown then defeated Northampton’s Chace Roland and Max Kochan, 10-2, before winning the nail-biting final over Parkland’s Ryan Wu and Matt Ringold, 10-9 (7-5).

“That was the most exciting match of tennis I have ever played,” Brown said. “I’ve never gone to a tiebreak before in any season or EPCs or anything like that, so it was very exciting. It was quick points at the end.”

Ohl and Brown knew that Wu and Ringold would be a tough match up.

“They came out with everything because we whooped them pretty bad in the season,” said Ohl. “We started off in a slump, but once we got things together, we stayed consistent. They were playing two back, we hit it up, and then they tried lobbing it and it was out (the final point). I was pretty anxious because we’d never dropped a set before, and knowing this wasn’t sets, it was one whole game, was pretty nerve wracking but then exciting.”

The Hurricanes had also faced Becahi and Northampton earlier in the season.

“We played Beca in the regular season, so we knew what we were expecting from them. In the regular season, we beat them pretty smoothly, so we were looking to do that again,” said Brown. “Northampton was a little more challenging. They had some height on us, and they knew where to place the ball, but we ended up on top.”

Caden Vermuelen and EJ Powers were the No. 4 doubles gold medalists, initially winning the quarterfinal, 8-2, over Freedom’s Henri Hoola and Bhavya Patel.

Vermuelen and Powers went on to win their semifinal, 10-5, over Allentown Central Catholic’s Zach Torchia and Arseny Skrapits, and the final, 10-6, over Emmaus’s Caleb Brashear and Ayden Kegley.

“Spectacular,” said Powers, who described the game winner. “It was stressful, kind of. [Caden] made a call. I said yes to the call, initially. Then I changed my mind and said no, I’m not gonna do it, but when the ball got hit to me, I decided to do what he initially said.

“We made lots of unforced errors but when they were able to lob it over us, it got us to miscommunicate. On top of that, they had a really loud crowd cheering, but in the beginning we pulled ahead, 3-0, and then it was just games back and forth, and we rode the wave until the end.”

Throughout the tournament, which began at 9 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m., Vermuelen said that the pair faced few challenges due to their preparation.

“When we have Dawn Ketterman as an assistant coach getting us ready, she gives us a great game plan, and we have (JV player) Aneesh Tumma training us in practice, which really helps us a lot to be ready for a team like Emmaus. He gave us great looks, getting us ready for this tournament,” Vermuelen said. “We did what we do every day. We stayed consistent, got balls back, and finished at the net. It feels good, especially with a great guy like EJ, my teammate. It was good to get the win.”