The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Boys Tennis Tournament took place on April 19 at Freedom High School, an annual opportunity for players to be awarded at each position where four singles players from Liberty and Freedom were medal winners.

Liberty senior Luke Appleman was the first player to medal, clinching gold at No. 1 singles after breezing through three matches.

Appleman’s first match ended in an 8-1 victory over Northampton’s Dane Missmer, and his second match was a 10-2 win against Emmaus’s Nick Stone.

“In the second match, it was 5-2, and I really didn’t like that, but it was because I couldn’t get my serve in, and I was making unforced errors, so I just talked to myself and said if I don’t make unforced errors, I will win the match,” Appleman said. “I have a great coach, and Coach (Chris Conrad) tells me before my match the game plan, and I try to execute it as well as I can.”

In the No. 1 singles final, Appleman defeated Parkland’s Manav Patel, 10-2.

“I think I have a good forehand, maybe not the power on it, but usually my placement. And when I get my serve in, I think it’s pretty effective,” said Appleman. “There’s good players, obviously, but I feel like if I play the way I can play and execute the game plan, I’ll be fine most of the time. It’s nice to have [the gold medal] at first singles.”

Liberty senior Roman Farhad was the No. 2 singles champ, topping Easton’s Mahdi Shah, 8-0, Nazareth’s Logan Baltz, 10-1, and Emmaus’s Chris Stone, 10-4.

“I wasn’t that confident in my shots like I was in the second match, so I had to pay attention and focus and hit every ball in,” said Farhad, who took an early lead against Stone.

Farhad went on to explain that several Emmaus fans harshly questioned Farhad’s call of an out ball.

“Those were very frustrating moments,” he said. “The people who were there couldn’t see it and were acting like it was in, and they were accusing me of being a cheater. I just tried to stay calm the whole time, and after that, I lost two deuces. I was down, 4-3, and then after that, I started picking it up. I tried to stay consistent, but after [Stone] cramped, he started being a lot more inconsistent.”

Freedom junior Eric Wu was the No. 3 singles silver medalist after defeating Pleasant Valley’s Ben Keppel, 8-2, and Liberty’s Ben Blum, 10-9 (7-4).

“One of the challenges was that [Blum] was really consistent, and I tried to stay focused in the point, and eventually I pulled through,” Wu said. “I think my strength was my forehand that dictated a lot of points; also, my slice. I was really good with it.”

Wu then fell to Nazareth’s Ishaan Patel, 7-10, for the silver medal.

“I know that I’m decent, and it means a lot to me to earn a medal today, and I’m proud of myself,” said Wu. “It feels great.”

Blum won his first match against Parkland’s Tommy Gilchrist, 8-6, before the match with Wu.

“Ben, at third singles, losing in a tiebreak to Eric Wu from Freedom, was a great match,” said Liberty coach Chris Conrad. “He came back and defended seven match points in order to get to a tiebreak, which is insane, so he played very well.”

Blum then defeated Allentown Central Catholic’s Matt Keenan, 8-3, in the consolation final to earn the No. 3 singles bronze medal.

“Our goal in the tournament is to make sure that each individual player gets the recognition by doing the best that they can do...They’ve earned it themselves to get that medal,” said Coach Conrad.

The Hurricanes were also awarded the EPC Tournament team championship trophy and the EPC regular season team championship trophy.

“We were undefeated all season, so to maintain that the entire way is good because there were upsets today in a lot of different matches,” Conrad said, “so for us to be a one seed and continue to stay on our path to the championship is impressive and it’s a good thing for us.”