OREFIELD - Though the first day of the District 11 Class AA boys' singles tennis tournament ended with all five players from the Times News area being eliminated, it certainly wasn't without positives both on and off the court.

Jim Thorpe's Brett Luicana, one of three Olympians to qualify for the event, advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-2 first round win over Pen Argyl's Anthony Polizzi.Luicana's tournament ended, however, when he was defeated by No. 7 seed Abbhi Sekar of Moravian Academy, 6-2, 6-1.Despite being down 5-0 in the first set, Luicana kept battling. The senior won consecutive games in the first set with a strong backhand that seemed to keep Sekar off balance."I just kept grinding away," Luicana said. "I knew eventually shots would go in and I would be able to win some games."It also didn't hurt that Luicana earned a convincing win over Polizzi in his first match, something Jim Thorpe head coach Norb Lienhard noted afterwards."I always tell them that 80 percent of the game is mental," Lienhard said. "And I think it gave him a lot of confidence when he got that first win."While Luicana advanced to the second round, teammates Luke Eggert and John Lowin, along with Lehighton's Tegan Durishin and Palmerton's Rich Roselli, were unable to make it past their first opponents.Lowin fell to Notre Dame East Stroudsburg's Grant Klinger, 6-2, 6-1, while Eggert suffered a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Bethlehem Catholic's Peter Demyan.Lowin, who had faced Klinger twice before this year, admitted that his counterpart just seemed to improve each time."I think he got better each time I played him. He definitely got better throughout the season," Lowin said. "He had great ball placement and his shots had a lot of top spin, which made it difficult."His serves were also a lot better than the first two times I played, and I wasn't expecting that."While Lowin was familiar with Klinger, Eggert hadn't seen Demyan prior to their match yesterday.Afterwards, Eggert acknowledged that Demyan's consistency was played a key role in his victory."He made absolutely no mistakes that I saw," Eggert said. "He just forced me into some errors and that was how he won the match."Despite the loss, Eggert was pleased to end his singles career as a district qualifier."I'm happy I made it here," he said. "It means a lot, because when I was a freshman I wanted to be like the players Jim Thorpe brought to districts in the past."And I've gone from not being able to put the ball over the net to being able to put some power behind it, which is something I'm very proud of."After having only one district qualifier last season, seeing his top three singles players compete in the tournament as seniors was something especially satisfying for Lienhard."All three of them played very well," the coach said. "They all earned their way in. And with them being seniors, it was great to see them play one more time."Roselli, also a senior, came up short against Blue Mountain's Kyle Rich in his first round match, losing 6-3, 6-1."He just brought me out of my comfort zone during the match and I couldn't get back into it," said Roselli. "He was able to slow the game down and played it at his pace."Despite the loss, Palmerton head coach Alex Knoll was proud to see Roselli earn another chance to compete in the district tournament."Rich has always been a great representative for us," Knoll said. "I'll be sad to see him go. I've had him for the last three years, and it's tough to lose a senior leader like that."Durishin, who earned a first round win over Bethlehem Catholic's Niko Franekic last year, had a tough draw against Moravian Academy's Adam Kramer, who was the No. 6 seed, this season.The junior displayed a valiant effort, but was simply unable to overcome Kramer's power, losing 6-1, 6-2."It was very difficult to hit his serve back," said Durishin. "You kind of had to tap it back just to get another groundstroke in."The match is one Durishin and Lehighton head coach Dave Sherry hopes will be a learning experience in the future."In my opinion, he was the hardest hitter here," Sherry said of Kramer. "But Tegan was hanging tough, which was good.""It's great to play against some of the best kids in the district, because you don't always get that opportunity," said Durishin. "It was great just to make it here and represent Lehighton."Seven of the eight seeds are still alive heading into Friday's quarterfinal round at Saucon Valley High School. The lone upset came in yesterday's first round, when Wilson's Scott Marceca knocked off No. 4 seed Mason Groff of Salisbury, 6-2, 1-6, 10-6. Marceca then defeated Blue Mountain's Rich, 7-5, 6-4, to advance to the quarters.