Freedom tennis players Noah Rodburg and Luke Braido captured silver medals in the District XI Class 3A Doubles Tennis Championships on April 26 at Freedom High School.

“Long,” said Braido, describing the day. “It was fun, though. We enjoyed ourselves a lot.”

Semifinals and finals were played on the same day, and the Patriots had a 2 1/2 hour semifinal that went to three sets with Nazareth’s Gideon Knowles and Logan Baltz.

Rodburg and Braido won the first set, 7-5, but squandered a 4-0 lead in the second set to lose, 5-7.

“We got a little too relaxed, too complacent and let them take over,” said Rodburg. “It was a good set. I think we had our chances.”

The semifinal match was then extended by a tiebreak in the third set, won by the Patriots, 7-6(3).

“We get to the third set, and we’re down a million times, but in the tiebreaker, they played really, really well. They seemed to relax. I think what happened was they had been mentally tired,” said Freedom girls tennis coach Mark Sigmon.

Sigmon, whose girls team competed in the district doubles final six years in a row, stood in for Freedom boys coach Matt Potts who had a previous obligation.

“I told them to keep the ball in play as much as they can,” Sigmon said. “We played well in the first match against Nazareth, but we started making too many unforced forehand errors. It almost cost us.”

After a 30 minute break at the conclusion of the semifinal match, the Pates took on Liberty’s Luke Appleman and Roman Farhad in the district final, won by the Hurricanes, 6-3, 6-3.

“We were there at 3-3 in the first set, and then when we’re serving, Bingo, we get broken, and that’s the problem. We missed some volleys at key points,” said Sigmon. “You’re always gonna make mistakes. That’s not the problem, but we made them at serving for a game or getting broken, but it happens. We lost to the better team, that’s all.”

Rodburg and Braido met Coach Sigmon for the first time on April 25, the start of the district doubles tournament, which took place at Lehigh University.

“He helped us out, gave us a lot of good ideas,” said Braido. “We played together last year, so we have good team chemistry and complemented each other’s games very well. We’re really proud of each other and of ourselves.”

The Pates won their first match against Pleasant Valley’s John Hargrave and Noah Dolan, 6-0, 6-1, and proceeded to win their quarterfinal match against Liberty’s Leo Babbin and Elijah Quan, 6-1, 6-2.

“It feels good to finally win a good silver medal,” said Rodburg, “so it means a lot.”