Liberty tennis players Luke Appleman and Roman Farhad were crowned District XI Class 3A doubles champions after winning the district final against Freedom’s Noah Rodburg and Luke Braido, 6-3, 6-3, on April 26 at Freedom High School.

“We didn’t lose serve until we were up 5-2 in the second set. Our issue was making sure we worked on the return game,” said Liberty coach Chris Conrad. “Freedom held incredibly well for most of the match. That’s what kept it close in the first set: Freedom’s ability to hold serve.”

Rodburg and Braido matched Appleman and Farhad game for game until the Hurricanes won the seventh game which went to deuce.

“We had a hard time breaking,” Conrad said. “Freedom served well. We knew Rodburg was the stronger server, but Braido also was able to hold serve pretty well as well, so that made everything close. Once we got our first break, we felt pretty solid.”

Although the Hurricanes were the top seed, what made winning the final imperative was that neither Appleman nor Farhad competed in the district singles tournament.

“We put a lot of eggs in one basket,” said Conrad. “We had a really good shot at winning district singles with one of them. Not being in that tournament and putting all our eggs here, that made me concerned. That made me a little more anxious, just knowing that there is a repercussion to not playing singles. You have to win doubles. You never know what happens. Matches aren’t won on paper. They’re won on the court, and Freedom brought everything today.”

The Pates won the first game in the second set after going to deuce four times, but once the Hurricanes won the next game, Appleman and Farhad went on to take the next four, including the sixth game that went to deuce.

“When it was deuce with Ad (advantage), I think that helped us play a lot better, knowing it might’ve been a lot closer. With Ad, the better team usually does better,” said Farhad. “We knew they were gonna poach a lot and they had really good volleys, so we tried to hit them wide.”

Appleman explained the importance of having familiarity with their opponents.

“I played Rodburg during the regular season, and we both knew he has a good serve, and we knew they were gonna try and finish points at the net a lot. Braido likes to serve it out wide, and Rodburg likes to crash in the middle of the net and put points away, so sometimes we try to go down the line or hit a lob,” said Appleman. “They were making less unforced errors than us in the beginning, so we had to lock in. Roman’s serve was doing better than me, but I think I was doing better at the net, so we tried to make it work.”

In their semifinal match, the Hurricanes defeated Parkland’s Yao Patel and Thomas Gilchrist, 6-1, 6-0.

The first round was played on April 25 at Lehigh University where Appleman and Farhad topped Easton’s Nicholas Ressler and Shahir Ali, 6-0, 6-1, before defeating Nazareth’s Ishaan Patel and Shivam Arora, 6-1, 6-1.

Appleman and Farhad will compete in the PIAA Class 3A State Tournament in May in Hershey, Pa.