Liberty’s boys tennis team was crowned East Penn Conference Tournament Champions after compiling 23 total points last Thursday at Parkland High School.

The Hurricanes medaled at every position earning three bronze in singles and four gold in doubles.

“It was nice, and we played well as a whole team,” said Liberty coach Chris Conrad. “All my guys were pretty happy with how we did, but what was most fun to see were our three and four doubles, who are first-year starters. That was the coolest moment.”

Juniors Chris Giannaras and Jacksen Jobes, who just started playing tennis last year, won, 10-5, over Allentown Central Catholic’s Enzo Fantozzi and Owen Wandalowski at three doubles, and Jiamming Wang and Will Lotto, both seniors who just started playing tennis in high school, won, 10-5, over Parkland’s Rithik Raghuraman and Noah Oxfeld at four doubles.

Coach Conrad explained that one singles player Shayaan Farhad is currently observing Ramadan, a month of fasting.

“He played the best he could under the circumstances, and it’s super admirable that he was willing to sacrifice for his faith,” Conrad said.

Farhad’s brother Roman, who played at two singles, is also observing Ramadan to an extent.

“Luke (Appleman) played very well (at three singles),” said Conrad. “He’s had a rough last couple of matches, but he proved to be the third best at three singles on Thursday.”

Freedom’s boys tennis team was runner-up in the tournament after compiling 20 points and clinching five gold medals.

“It was pretty unbelievable, considering we lost a lot of regular-season matches to Liberty and Parkland. I haven’t seen something like this come together, and it’s pretty awesome to get that many upsets in a row,” said Coach Matt Potts, still in awe of the Patriots’ accomplishments.

At two doubles, Freedom senior Dylan Sarkozy and freshman Noah Rodburg, took an early 4-0 lead to win, 10-5, over Liberty’s Gavin Evans-Gartley and Sid Tekumalla.

“I was a little surprised they went through the two, three, and one seeds in a row because leading up to the tournament, they weren’t winning, but they were doing the right things,” said Coach Potts, who also noted the pair had a strong start to the tennis season but then seemed to hit a wall. “They made a humongous turnaround. They were very excited.”

Coach Potts described Sarkozy as the consummate team guy who works two jobs and always comes to practice, and Rodburg as a super-talented player who eventually settled in to outdoor, high school tennis.

“For Dylan to finish his EPC career this way was pretty awesome, and he deserves it,” Potts said.

And although there were no MVP awards as part of the EPC tournament, and in spite of the Liberty-Freedom rivalry, Coach Conrad was adamant that Sarkozy and Rodburg were just that: tournament MVPs.

“They were outstanding,” Conrad said.

In singles play, Noah Potts defeated Parkland’s Dan Zolotarev, 10-8, Arun Chhugani defeated Parkland’s Fyodor D’Souza, 10-7, and Gavin Labaddia defeated Parkland’s Josh Thomas, 10-8.

“Noah went up quickly early, so I wasn’t paying much attention,” said Potts. “He got up real big, 6-1, and hung on at the end. Arun and Gavin, especially when the matches got close, especially with Arun, there wasn’t a ton to say because he wasn’t way down.”

Chhughani won five points in a row to take the win, and Labaddia also captured a come-from-behind victory in a back-and-forth match.

Parkland’s boys tennis team placed third in the tournament after compiling 19 points, but was crowned the EPC Regular Season Champion.