OREFIELD - Though they didn't advance to the quarterfinals of the District 11 Class AA doubles tennis tournament, Lehighton's Tegan Durishin and Josh Knappenberger certainly didn't do down without a fight.

Following an impressive first round victory over Allentown Central Catholic's Adam Werner and Dario Sorrentino, Durishin and Knappenberger took the eighth seeded team of Aaron Gardiner and Michael Vidal of Saucon Valley to the limit, forcing a third set tiebreaker in round two.Despite coming up on the short end of a 5-7, 6-4, 10-4 result yesterday at Parkland High School, Lehighton head coach Dave Sherry was proud of the fact that his pair of juniors had a chance to move on in the tournament."I knew it would be close, and they started out really well. It could have gone either way," said Sherry. "But I think the biggest problem was that we were starting to miss our first serve. Our second serves are a little bit weaker, and they (Gardiner and Vidal) were jumping all over that."I think they just started to cover a little bit more of the court and we just had a hard time getting it around them."After cruising past Werner and Sorrentino, 6-0, 6-0 in the opening round, Knappenberger and Durishin appeared to carry that momentum over to their match against Gardiner and Vidal, taking the first set."I was feeling pretty good," Knappenberger said. "I was confident in my cross-court shots, and Tegan was serving really well."Added Durishin, "I was getting all of my serves in, and we just kind of outplayed them at the net."But Gardiner and Vidal were able to negate that advantage after the first set, forcing Durishin and Knappenberger to be more conservative, something that could have easily frustrated the Lehighton duo. But both kept their poise throughout."I knew we needed to win that second set, which obviously didn't happen. But I just tried to keep my composure," said Knappenberger.While Durishin and Knappenberger were the only pair to advance to the second round, three teams from Jim Thorpe and two from Palmerton also competed in the tournament.Like Durishin and Knappenberger, the tandem of John Lowin and Brett Luicana also faced a third set tiebreaker situation in their first round match against Blue Mountain's Brad Hufford and Ricky Montone.Lowin and Luicana took the first set, but were unable to capitalize on the early advantage, falling 3-6, 6-0, 10-8."I thought we both held serve and did a good job returning," said Lowin, "but they've (Hufford and Montone) been playing doubles all year, and I think they made better adjustments in the second set and that was why they won."We knew their strengths and their weaknesses, but they just adjusted better to us than we did to them."Said Luicana of the tiebreaker, "we were just a few points short there. A few key points didn't go our way."Jim Thorpe's Shaun DiCostanzo and Luke Carter suffered a 6-0, 6-0 first round loss to the fifth seeded team of Niko Franekic and Ryan Schmidt from Bethlehem Catholic, while Matt Miller and Roman Raytsis lost 6-2, 6-0 to the No. 3 team of Srini Laliwala and Dave Mason of Saucon Valley."The kids just amazed me with how well they kept playing this season," said Jim Thorpe head coach Norb Lienhard. "They kept improving all season long, and they played in so many tight matches."Palmerton's Rich and Marc Roselli suffered a tough 6-4, 6-4 loss to Moravian Academy's Daniel Elm and Ryan Brands in the first round.The Roselli's were up by as much as 4-1 in the first set, and were within striking distance throughout much of the second, but simply weren't able to finish the comeback.Despite the loss, both were appreciative to be able to play together one more time."I love getting the opportunity to play alongside my brother, and it was his last match, so that makes it even more special," said Marc."I told him that I thought it was pretty neat that he had his first district round of play and I had my last on the same day," said Rich.Afterwards, Palmerton head coach Alex Knoll admitted seeing Rich compete for the program for the final time was difficult."It was tough," he said. "I feel for Rich because he's a senior and they played a really close match. It could have gone either way."But Marc's only a freshman and he's going to have a lot of chances to continue to develop and maybe get his own chance at a win here."The Blue Bombers' tandem of Jake Brown and Sal Melo, both juniors, lost to Blue Mountain's Connor McCaw and Ben Ney 6-0, 6-0 in the first round.