After disappointing losses to Nazareth and Parkland late last month, the Emmaus tennis team has rebounded nicely, winning four straight matches over Northampton, Southern Lehigh, East Stroudsburg North and Allen, upping its record to 6-2.

Number one singles player Matt FitzMaurice struggled through the Parkland match with a bad right shoulder, but has healed nicely and has gone back on a winning streak.

An area of the game that has shown big improvement has been the play of the doubles teams. Coming into the season, there was some discussion about which pairings would work best. That has all come together, with Darsh Patel and Cam Widdoss forming the top doubles combo, Zhouhong He and Eric Ma making up the number two team and Austin Long and Stephen Naab playing third doubles.

"We are pretty well set with doubles," said coach Dmitri Diamondopoulos. "The teams seemed to click once the season got rolling."

Emmaus faced a tough battle in picking up a 4-3 win over East Stroudsburg North. FitzMaurice earned a 6-0, 6-1 win and Kyle Jaeger won 6-3, 6-1. In number two singles, Sanket Narayana battled Isaac Schefer through three tough sets before falling 4-6, 6-3, 5-7.

With the match coming down to the doubles contests, Patel and Widdoss grabbed a 6-4, 6-1 win and He and Ma had a three-set battle with the Timberwolves' Joel Crespo and Collin Graner. He and Ma won the first set 6-1 before falling 4-6 in the second set. He and Ma came back to take the third set 6-4 and clinch the win for the Green Hornets.

Against Allen, Emmaus was able to find a much easier path to victory. FitzMaurice picked up an 8-0 win in number one singles and the two teams swapped forfeits at number two and three singles, giving a win to Sanket Narayana, while Emmaus forfeited the number three singles match. In doubles, Patel and Widdoss won 8-5, He and Ma won 8-3 and Long and Naab won 8-0 as Emmaus breezed to a 5-1 win over the Canaries.

Emmaus hosts Whitehall tomorrow afternoon and then welcomes Liberty for a home match next Monday.

A key match of the season will come next Thursday when Freedom comes to Emmaus with Andrew Sinai, perhaps the top singles player in District 11 tennis, facing off against FitzMaurice. The EPC Tournament play is right around the corner as well and Emmaus will face tough challenges in both singles and doubles play.

"We should do fine, hopefully the weather will hold up," said Diamondopoulos. "There is a lot of competition in the league this year. It will be interesting."