Liberty’s boys tennis team finished its regular season undefeated after beating city rival Freedom, 4-2, on April 14 at Freedom.

“We knew that 2 singles would be a pretty good match, 3 singles would be a good match, and honestly, 2 doubles,” said Liberty coach Chris Conrad. “I stuck around down here because I knew there’d be some closer matches.”

Since District XI adopted the Coaching on the Fly rule beginning with the boys tennis season, Conrad was able to coach his players directly on the court, no longer required to stand behind the chainlink fence that surrounds most high school courts.

“It makes it easier as a coach, and it also makes it easier for players,” said Conrad. “Now, I can actually move freely to talk to a player, and it’s actually saving us time.”

Liberty won all of its doubles matches with EJ Powers and Micah Steck defeating Jonah Rodburg and Manny Suarez, 6-1, 6-2; Finn Brown and Connor Ohl defeating Aidan Hugo and Henri Houle, 6-0, 6-1; and Thomas Horvath and Giovanni Piccini defeating Aidan Cabrera and Luke Eureyecko, 6-0, 6-1.

“I would say the combination of my lefty serve and [EJ] at the net...He can put anything away at the net,” Steck said of his No. 2 doubles partner.

But Freedom’s Rodburg and Suarez challenged the Hurricanes at the net and with their serves.

“Manny had a huge kick serve,” said Powers. “It’s where the ball has top spin coming at you on the serve, so it hits the ground, and it pops up more than a flat serve would, so you have to back up a little, or, I guess, if you’re feeling great, come forward and take it at the net.”

Freedom won at No. 1 singles with Noah Rodburg topping Ben Blum, 6-0, 6-0, and at No. 2 singles with Eric Wu topping Luke D’Angelo, 1-6, 7-5, 10-6.

“First set, I was really aggressive, making a lot of errors, and [Luke] was the consistent one,” Wu said, “but then second set, I realized that didn’t work so I had to change my strategy and started playing more conservative, keeping the balls in, and letting him be the one who makes a mistake.”

In the second set, Wu thought he was down, 1-4, when Coach Conrad corrected the score to 2-3.

“If he didn’t correct it, I don’t know if I could’ve come back,” said Wu. “That definitely gave me confidence, and I stayed tough mentally. Honestly, I think he had the better shots. He was starting to get tired, and I was starting to see that, so I continued with my strategy.”

Liberty won at No. 3 singles where Eric Peterson defeated Oscar Avila, 6-3, 6-2.

“I think our team did fantastic this year,” said Wu. “Our record is 10-4 after today’s match, and that’s solid. I’m really proud of the team and privileged to represent Freedom, and just love this team. Everyone works so well together, and we did really good this year.”

Freedom coach Matt Potts was pleased with Monday’s match as well as the Patriots’ season.

“Noah Rodburg’s been playing great all year. He’s one of the best guys around. Eric...I thought he made really good adjustments, smart adjustments. Great wins for those two,” Potts said. “We lose six seniors, and every one of those seniors did not start here until their junior year, so for the lack of experience, we had a good year. We’re hoping to win some matches in team districts, and hoping to do well in the post season, individually.”