Freedom senior Noah Potts was crowned District XI Class 3A singles tennis champ for the third consecutive year with his 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory over Parkland’s Josh Thomas on April 25 at Saucon Valley High School.

“It means a lot,” Potts said. “All it takes is one bad match and you’re out.”

Thomas fired a warning shot by winning the first set, but Potts knew there was something off about his own play.

“The biggest thing was energy. The first set, I was flat. I was missing at the net. I was leaving balls short,” said Potts.

Potts’ coach could see something was off too.

“We both knew my energy was low, so at 0-3 I said, ‘Am I just not moving?’ and he said, ‘Yeah,’ so that’s when I knew like, OK, you gotta start moving, play with some energy, play better,” Potts said. Then, in the second and third, I brought my energy up, started getting the ball through the court and played so much better. Overall, keep the ball deep and deep to his backhand, approach and attack his backhand, and put away the volley. That’s how I play. That’s how I built my game. I stuck to the plan, and it paid off.”

Potts started the two-day district tournament with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Liberty’s David Broczkowski and a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Pocono Mountain East’s Daniel Trott with both matches played on April 24.

The next day, Potts won his semifinal against Emmaus’s Eddy Chow, 6-1, 6-3, before facing Thomas in the final.

“Neither Noah nor I were surprised that this was a tough match. Josh is a fantastic player, and to drop a set to Josh, it happens,” said Freedom coach Matt Potts. “The biggest problem in the first set is that Josh played really well. Noah had to push him back a little bit, not let Josh impose his will as much, but a lot of that was Josh. Can you get this guy to stop playing so well? Nothing is certain against a kid who’s good. To me, it kind of makes it more special because Noah’s had relatively nice runs in the last two finals, and this one was just the opposite. It shows his toughness and character, which is nice to see.”

In the Class 2A final, Saucon Valley’s Deven Pandey became district singles champion for the second consecutive year with his 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Bethlehem Catholic’s Armaan Makwana.

“Losing the first set is always a challenge to come back, and I thought Deven went for winners a little too soon in the point,” said Saucon Valley coach Mike Krentz, “so the basic message was, you’ve just got to settle down, be willing to grind out some long points, give your opponent a chance to make a mistake or two, which Armaan hardly made any mistakes. Tennis is all about momentum, and the set ends, and you have to say that one’s over, and I’m starting over, and I can make momentum for me.”

Pandey and Makwana faced each other in last year’s district singles final that also went to three sets in favor of Pandey.

“We all just wanted it really bad,” said Becahi assistant coach Phil Magliochetti. “Armaan was playing well, and everything was clicking, so you just kind of say keep going.”

And that’s what Makwana did, but Pandey changed his game.

“In the first set, I was mostly consistent, tried to let him make the error, stay in the point as long as I could, try to hit high and more to his backhand,” said Makwana. “In the second set, I still tried to do what I was doing except he was able to run around his backhand and hit his forehand and move me around which made it harder for me to give him challenging balls.”

Before meeting in the final, Pandey defeated Moravian Academy’s Ford Koch, 6-1, 6-0, and Makwana defeated Allentown Central Catholic’s Tim Spinosa, 6-2, 6-4.

“I just thought I needed to reset and not let that first set affect my play throughout the rest of the match,” said Pandey, regarding the final. “This is the tournament I always want to win.”