Freedom’s Noah Potts, Liberty’s Luke Appleman, and Freedom’s Arun Chhugani were Eastern Pennsylvania Conference singles tennis champions at the EPC Boys Tennis Tournament on April 20 at Freedom High School.

Potts was awarded his third consecutive conference gold medal at number one singles when he defeated Pocono Mountain East’s Daniel Trott, 8-0, Bethlehem Catholic’s Armaan Makwana, 10-5, and Parkland’s Josh Thomas, 10-3.

“It feels pretty good...you can’t take matches lightly. You always have to go out high energy and give your best,” Potts said. “The score was tighter versus Beca, but I think I had to play a little more physical and run down a few more balls against Josh in the final. Armaan is good coming forward, so he’ll attack my backhand which is very tough for me, so he’s able to push me that way. I think I know Josh really well so I know how to play him and how he’s gonna react when I start winning, so I have the background information and was able to use that really well today.”

Thomas was the silver medalist, and Liberty’s Roman Farhad captured bronze after winning the consolation match against Makwana.

“I think we were both very tired after our matches,” said Farhad. “I just came out on top at the end. It was pretty good, but if I wasn’t fasting (for Ramadan), I think it would be better, but I was playing a lot better against Armaan than I was playing against Josh Thomas.”

Makwana was also awarded a medal for taking fourth place.

“I played pretty well (against Noah). I just kept in the rallies, kept them long, and made him move forward and backward instead of side to side,” he said. “I was just trying to move [Roman] around because I knew he played a long match with Josh, so I tried to tire him out that way. Other than that, my forehand was going well.”

At number two singles, Appleman clinched the gold medal after his match against Freedom’s Gavin Labbadia, 10-5.

“It feels good. Last year I placed third, and freshman year I placed second, so it’s good finally to place first,” said Appleman. “[Gavin] doesn’t miss a lot, so I knew I had to get him off the baseline, drop shot him a lot. That’s what I did on Monday, and it seemed to work. It helped me out because I finished my first two matches quickly, and Gavin had a long second match, so I was rested, and I knew he was not going to be as rested.”

Earlier in the day, Appleman won matches against Bethlehem Catholic’s Xavier Shive-Sanchez, 8-0, and Nazareth’s Gideon Knowles, 10-1.

Labbadia, who took the silver medal, previously defeated Easton’s Mahdi Shah, 8-1, and Parkland’s Lucas Lee, 10-7.

“With the drop shots, I expected a lot of that today, and [Luke] used that a lot. I tried not to volley very much because I don’t feel very comfortable at the net, so I tried to go back,” Labbadia said. “When [Lucas and I] played in the regular season at Parkland, it was pretty much just as close. We had a lot of games going to deuce just like today. After last year winning gold, it stings, but also Luke’s improved so much since last year, so I expected it to be really tough.”

At number three singles, Chhugani won the gold medal after matches against Stroudsburg’s Jarod Ruhl, 8-0, Nazareth’s Alay Patel, 10-1, and Parkland’s Kevin Yao, 10-3.

“His forehand’s really strong, so I tried to move him out to the forehand and then hit to his backhand. And my strength is my backhand, so I tried to hit as many backhands as I could,” Chhugani said. “I think everything went according to game plan. I think I coasted through. He played well too, but I was also serving well today.”