The young Emmaus girls tennis team went into the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Tournament not really knowing what to expect. In the end, they walked away with a doubles team in the semifinals and another coming up just short.

The doubles tandem of senior Justine Wang and junior Katie Xue came in fourth in the No. 4 doubles bracket, dropping the consolation match for third place to a team from Central Catholic by a 10-3 score.

Two freshmen, Xinyi He and Tina Zhang competed in the No. 3 doubles competition and lost to a pair from Easton in the quarterfinals after picking up a first round win over a team from East Stroudsburg South.

Wang and Xue not only won their first-round match against Kayla Price and Megan Smale, but were able to extract some revenge against the pair for beating them during the regular season. The win also served as a way of helping the team to settle in and calm their nerves.

"We were nervous playing them, because we lost to them in a third set tie-breaker during the regular season, so that made things tough," said Xue.

Interim coach Dmitri Diamandopolous knew the tournament was going to be difficult since his team is made up of mainly younger players. In the end, he was happy with his players' effort and was pleasantly surprised by his doubles teams.

"I think the girls did well," he said. "Our three and four doubles teams are solid teams and they have decent records and I feel like for their first time in the lineup for the team tournament, they did really well for themselves.

"Obviously, when you get to that semifinal point, you want to move on, but I'm proud of them just for getting there. It's been a long year and they've really learned a lot about tennis and themselves. Even though we didn't make it all the way, it still builds our confidence."

Wang admitted being a little overwhelmed on the first day of the tournament, but as she and her doubles partner moved through the tournament, she felt that things actually got a little easier for the pair.

"I think the first day was kind of harsh for me, because there were so many people and there were so many competitors and we had lost to the team that we were playing [Friday], so I was a little nervous. In the end though, I was really happy when we won."

Wang and Xue came into the tournament as the sixth-seeded duo in their bracket.

Zhang and He, even though they're both freshmen, were the number-three seed in the No. 3 doubles bracket, the highest seeded member of the Emmaus team in the conference tournament.

"We're definitely progressing and a lot of the kids really want it and they want to do well," ," said Diamandopolous. "They want to get better, because they know that next year is going to be another year.

"This was a lot to put on their shoulders; the district and/or league is pretty strong, there's a lot of good singles players out there, there's a lot of good doubles teams and this is big for them to step up like they've been doing."

Emmaus is 1-10 overall and 1-9 in the EPC this season, with a final match against Central Catholic (8-3, 5-3) coming up this Thursday afternoon at home.