Liberty and Parkland’s first doubles pairs began their tennis match with the team score tied at two apiece, but the Trojans’ subsequent wins at third and fourth doubles gave Parkland a 4-2 victory over the Hurricanes on Aug. 31 at Liberty.

“At the end of the day, they have more experience than us. All of their players have played a little bit longer than us...so for us to just be there...We changed some tactics in certain matches and made it close, and we had opportunities. In the third set of third doubles we lost four deuce games, and so, you know, when the score is 6-3, and if we had won those four, we would have won it earlier,” said Liberty coach Chris Conrad. “Our goal is one step at a time, get better, see them again, and maybe just make it easier for ourselves in the future with some of the things that we worked on in practice.”

Liberty’s Stephanie Zheng was solid at second singles with her 6-1, 6-2 victory over Sophie Elijovich.

“She’s really worked on her game quite a bit,” Coach Conrad said of Zheng. “There’s a couple things we modified in her game, and she stepped up, and she’s now coming to the net a little bit more. Everyone’s massively improved.”

Liberty’s Helena Lynn won at first singles over Lexie Warsing, 6-2, 1-6, 6-0.

“I kind of got tentative in the second set and wasn’t going after my shots as much, and then in the third set, I just decided to be aggressive and attack and play loose,” Lynn said.

The vocal Warsing in contrast to the reserved Lynn provided a tense match that saw a repeat of last year’s district final matchup won by Lynn.

“In the second set, she was playing really aggressive and moving me around,” said Lynn. “I remember when I played in districts, I came in to the net a lot and was attacking, so I tried to implement that today. I would say she’s the toughest opponent. She can do a lot, so every time I play her, I try to come prepared. I was pretty confident since I won three times last year, so I had a pretty solid plan, and I wasn’t too stressed out when I lost the second set. I just tried to play my game.”

In a battle of the two Sophias, Parkland’s Petrocelli was a 6-0, 6-1 winner over Csatari at third singles.

Liberty’s Abby Mayes and Ava Sabetti forced a third set against Arohi Vaze and Kiera Miles at second doubles, but lost, 0-6, 6-4, 1-6.

The Hurricanes’ match at fourth doubles looked winnable early as Angela Schray and Katie Bruno had a 6-4 lead in the first set against Riley Zangari and Bella Mattson, but the set went to tiebreak and the Parkland pair won the match, 7-6, 6-1.

At third doubles, Liberty’s Rachel Lin and Bella Cantelmi dropped the first set to Ali Silman and Kiana Miles, 1-6, and came back to win the second set, 6-4, hopeful to take the team match score to 3-3, but lost the third set, 3-6.

Lynn and Zheng were winning their first doubles match, 6-0, 3-0, against Elijovich and Petrocelli (Warsing sat out after complaining of pain in her calves.) when the team match had been decided.

“We lost, 4-2, but in all four of those other matches, we could’ve changed the course,” Conrad said, “so it’s exciting because I’d rather lose now than lose in the postseason.”