Bethlehem Catholic and Freedom’s No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles players competed side-by-side in three-set matches, won by the Patriots on Sept. 4 at Bethlehem Catholic.

Esha Koladia defeated Brooke Mayer, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, and Katie Nenna and Alexa Holder defeated Bianca Ciarrocca and Ruby Robinson, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2.

“[Bianca and Ruby] serve and hit a lot harder than the other teams that we’ve seen, so they had an advantage with that,” said Nenna. “Keeping [the ball] in play was the most important thing. Going into three sets gets nerve racking, but winning in those is a really good feeling.”

By the third set, however, Nenna and Holder were able to stop the Golden Hawks’ momentum.

“They had really good volleys at the net, and [Bianca’s] serves were really tough to hit,” said Holder. “I think my strength was definitely at the net, and really good volleys I had.”

At No. 3 doubles, Freedom’s Cassidy Huston and Stella Bauer won their match against Alex Torres and Madelyn Araniego, 6-0, 6-1.

In singles play, Freedom’s Aurora Clark topped Sasha Mathew at No. 1, 6-3, 6-1, and Freedom’s Katie Ryer defeated Caroline Dunn at No. 2, 6-0, 6-1.

“I would say my serves have become more powerful, and on the mental side, I have a saying, ‘One ball at a time,’” said Ryer. “[Caroline] was very good at hitting to my backhand, which is usually a tennis player’s less improved side, and she was very resilient.”

Bethlehem Catholic is a very young team that includes Ciarrocca, an exchange student from Italy.

“This was Bianca’s first match,” said Becahi coach Dan Arkans. “She was pretty nervous, but she was happy with how she played. I thought she played great. We could’ve won the first set. It was really close. In the third set, I think their level dropped a little bit, and they were overhitting.”

Regarding Mayer’s three-set match against Koladia, Coach Arkans said, “[Brooke] was doing a good job of working the points in the first two sets, and she just kind of stopped doing that in the third set, and then [Esha] just started playing better, controlling the points more, and wasn’t missing as much.”

Arkans also said that Mayer does a lot of running in her matches and seems to get tired at times.

“I think they’re all upset about losing, but I’m trying to get them to focus more on the game that should be fun,” said Arkans, “and I think Bianca and Ruby had fun.”