It might not have been the best of days for some of the local girls' tennis players at the District 11 Class AA Singles Tournament.
However, for Tamaqua's Nicki Mateyak, it was everything she could have asked for.
"It was just a great day overall," Mateyak said. "I'm happy to have been able to be here."
While the other TIMES NEWS area players failed to advance out of the opening round of play, the Raider senior was able to better her performance from a year ago.
After falling in three sets to Wilson's Jani Swiatek a year ago, Mateyak was able to advance to the second round this season with a 6-2, 6-1 straight-set victory over Emily Zanette of Pen Argyl on Thursday.
Twenty minutes after facing Zanette, the Raiders' No. 1 singles player was up against a familiar regular-season foe the tournament's No. 1 seeded player in Blue Mountain's Aubrey Abel. Mateyak had previously lost to Abel twice this season.
After taking a 2-1 lead in the first set, and then pushing it to 5-5 later on, Mateyak gave it her best with her high school career on the line. Unfortunately for Mateyak, Abel took the next two games to win the first set 7-5.
In the second set, Abel, who was on a mission after s