The Liberty Hurricanes were crowned District XI Class 3A Team Tennis Champions with a 3-2 victory over the Parkland Trojans last Thursday at Lehigh University when Liberty’s one singles player Shayaan Farhad came back to top Parkland’s Dan Zolotarev, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 6-2, in the last match of the day.

“It felt amazing. It felt like I was dreaming. Freshman year, I was on the bottom of the lineup, and now I’m on the top of the lineup, so it feels really good to give the team the win,” said a beaming Farhad, a senior. “I really wanted to let all these guys win. I really wanted to win this match to prove to myself, like Coach (Chris Conrad) said, that I’m a top singles player in the area because I think my season has been a little tough.”

Farhad, who is Muslim, had been fasting during the entire boys tennis season in observance of Ramadan.

“I’m not gonna lie, I was a little bit nervous with him coming off of Ramadan, trying to get his energy up,” Coach Conrad said. “This is the first time we’re seeing a true Shayaan because he’s played the entire season without drinking, without eating, and so this is finally an opportunity for him to showcase what he’s capable of doing, and obviously, he was able to do it today.”

Farhad had a feeling his would be the deciding match when he became aware that Parkland’s Josh Thomas won at two singles over Roman Farhad, 6-3, 6-1, and Parkland’s Lucas Lee won at three singles over Luke Appleman, 6-1, 6-0.

“I kind of thought it was gonna be all on me. I was down 4-1, and I thought to myself that I beat [Dan] in the past and pretty one-sidedly, so I started thinking about what I did in those matches that I’m not doing here,” Farhad said. “I thought about covering the deuce side because he has a pretty strong forehand and being more consistent to his backhand. I volleyed really well today, and he was a little scared when I came to the net, and I love that.”

By the time Farhad and Zolotarev were on their third set, the rest of the Hurricanes had finished their matches.

“We wanted to get it over so we could give Shayaan some confidence, so he could finish the job for us,” said Liberty’s two doubles player Jacksen Jobes, who, along with partner Chris Giannaras, defeated Taehyuk Yang and Ryan Wu, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4.

“We were maybe up by one game, tops, throughout,” said Giannaras. “Even the tiebreak went really long, one of the closest sets of tennis I ever played. The second set, we managed to ride that and come out to a strong start, but you get a bit nervous when you’re 5-2 and then it doesn’t feel like you did anything wrong, and then you’re 5-4, and you’re like, if I lose this game, it’s 5-all.”

The pair, who lost only one match this season, could feel they were being tested in Thursday’s district final.

“They challenged us off first serves. It was hard to hit balls back, and they were hitting very deep,” said Jobes. “[Assistant coach Chris Csencsits] told us to come up to the net so we could finish points. Toward the end, we were doing it, but in the beginning, it was a slow struggle. Winning was a sigh of relief because we didn’t want to go to a third set.”

The match at one doubles, won by Liberty’s Gavin Evans Gartley and Sid Tekumalla against Kevin Yao and Rithik Raghuraman, 6-3, 6-3, was the first match to finish.

“We were really consistent. We certainly attacked at the net a lot,” Evans Gartley said. “The power on their serves was a challenge. It was hard to return them, but once you get them in play, it’s a lot easier.”

The Hurricane pair were also glad to have finished their match early.

“Good, yes,” said Tekumalla. “I didn’t know exactly who would be playing against [us] until today, but his serve (Raghuraman’s) was really good.”

All the Hurricanes knew before the district final was that Parkland would have a lineup change.

“It’s very unfortunate for them they lose (two singles) Fyodor (D’Souza) who’s a fantastic player. Lucas Lee, who stepped in from first doubles to three singles, played fantastic, and that showed their depth as well. We were confident going in with our doubles, but we had to figure out where we were going with singles,” Coach Conrad said. “Yesterday was an odd day because I didn’t know what Parkland was going to have in terms of lineup. They forfeited their second singles the last two matches. It was definitely a disadvantage for us. It’s part of the game, it’s part of strategy, it’s totally legal according to PIAA, and it was a great strategic move, but it was difficult, planning for something we don’t know.”

Coach Conrad then pointed out that playing teams from outside the district, which is what the Hurricanes purposely do, prepares them to play anyone, any day.

“We scrimmaged against Cedar Crest, the number two-ranked District 3 team right now, and we were right there with them, toe-to-toe, so I would like to think we can be toe-to-toe with District 1 this year, and we’ll see,” said Conrad.

The Liberty Hurricanes will take on the fourth-seeded team from District 1 at noon on May 17 at Northwood Racquet Club.

“We know District 1’s always tough, but you never know. We struggled to compete with Parkland in singles almost all year, and today, we proved it a little bit different,” Conrad said. “We can do it. We just need to keep our positive minds and make sure we play our best tennis.”