Liberty seniors Elijah Quan and Leo Babbin came off the Hurricane tennis court to an outburst of cheers after winning their match at No. 2 doubles, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, against arch rival Freedom in Liberty’s 6-0 team victory over the Patriots on April 15.

“It’s a classic rivalry, Liberty and Freedom, so it was really great to do it for ourselves, our coaches, and the school,” said Babbin.

The rivalry match between the schools included three comebacks, all in three sets.

“Second set, we started slipping, and in the final set, we decided we’re not losing to these guys, so we really stepped on it,” Babbin said. “We knew that we could win on my serve, just because that’s an advantage serving, so we figured we could get it up to 4-4, and then we ended up winning [Hardeep Sandhu’s] serve, and that was huge.”

Sandhu and doubles partner Matt Davis had leveled the playing field with a second-set win.

“We were just trying to stay calm because we were down, and we didn’t want to lose. Not get into any long rallies,” said Quan. “We were down a game, 3-4, and came back.”

It was the first conference loss for Sandhu and Davis at No. 2 doubles.

“In the first set, we were just trying to get our bearings and assess their game play, and in the second set, we played to their weaknesses, basically,” Davis said.

“We figured out their game play, so coming into the third set, we knew we could capitalize on that, but unfortunately, we missed two, big, game-winning forehands, overheads at the end,” said Sandhu. “The biggest thing was the way they were placing the balls. It would start in the middle and then get me down the line, and also, they were setting up the lobs and we missed those.”

The Patriot pair hope to face Liberty again in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Tournament later this week.

“[Hardeep] plays up at the net more because he’s taller and can cover more range, and I play back more. I have big serves. He has big serves. It’s kind of like dynamic duo. We complement each other well,” Davis said. “[Quan and Bobbin] play really tight, and they both come up to the net, and it’s kind of scary because our only option is lobbing, so that makes it tough, but I think we can bring it back in the EPC Tournament.”

The match at No. 3 singles between Liberty’s David Broczkowski and Freedom’s Eric Wu was a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 Hurricane comeback after it appeared Wu had the match in hand.

“I remind David, every time he’s in a three-set match, that he basically helped us, as a team, win the championship last year. He put us on his back. So the reality is he’s got the grit. He’s got the character to push through and persevere,” said Liberty coach Chris Conrad. “Today, there was a slight change in game plan from the second to third set, very slight. We basically had the same game plan the entire time...and I felt good about our strategy, so we continued to push that. We made a very small tinkering of a change, and then all of a sudden, we saw a lot more success.”

Liberty’s Roman Farhad came back after dropping the first set to win the match at No. 2 singles, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, over Luke Braido.

At No. 1 singles, Liberty’s Luke Appleman was a 6-2, 6-0 winner over Noah Rodburg.

Finn Brown and Connor Ohl won at No. 3 doubles, 6-2, 6-1, against Joe Siessmayer and Angel Suarez, and at No. 4 doubles, Caden Vermuelen and EJ Powers won, 6-0, 6-0, over Bhavya Patel and Henri Houle.

Liberty finished the regular season undefeated and as conference champions for the second consecutive season.

“t’s nice to be challenged and to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations,” said Coach Conrad, regarding the Hurricanes’ match against Freedom. “The reality is that there were ways that we played that became too lax at times, so we felt like we had the upper hand; however, Freedom proved that we had to earn it.”

Freedom has one more match to play, past Press deadlines, against Parkland.

“To me, it’s how you end the season, and obviously, I’m hoping our kids are gonna be there, deep into districts. During the season, you get four or five competitive matches, so it’s a good thing,” said Coach Potts. “Great match (at No. 2 doubles). Hardeep and Matt- it’s amazing how much they’ve improved. Hardeep wasn’t in the lineup at all last season, and Matt started playing sophomore year. Eric had a lot of momentum (at No. 3 singles). We have a bit of history with David...He’s the kind of kid who can make a comeback like that. He doesn’t give up, and it gets frustrating. Eric was definitely in control for the first half of the match. He was controlling depth well.”