HELLERTOWN The Pleasant Valley doubles team of John Walmach and Jon White can consider their quarterfinals loss from last year's District 11 tournament avenged. The duo breezed through their quarterfinal match against the duo of Dan Lynn and Branden Cunningham with a 6-0, 6-1 straight sets victory on Friday.

The pair then played the best match of the day against Nick Kshatri and Pete Harrison of Parkland, grabbing a win in the semifinal match and a spot in the District 11 Finals, which will be played indoors at Lehigh University on Monday.White and Walmach came into the tournament as the No. 2 seed, while Kshatri and Harrison were the No. 3 seed. Pleasant Valley took the first set 7-6, winning the tie-breaker 7-5. Just judging from the back-and-forth battle from the first set, it was obvious that the two duos were destined to play three sets and they didn't disappoint.Parkland seemed to have a renewed emphasis to its play in the second set and won a hard fought set, coming out on top 6-3. By that point in the day, despite the fact that all but one match had started prior to the Parkland and Pleasant Valley match, everything else was completed and fans stuck around to witness the battle.Parkland held a 3-2 lead in games before White and Walmach kicked things into a higher gear. The duo would take four straight games to surge from behind and capture the final set 6-3.One area that seemed to help Pleasant Valley was its play at the net. Both teams tried to be aggressive, but Parkland found itself in trouble when it came to the net, while White and Walmach were both effective playing close to the net and won the majority of points."They're both fantastic players. It was just a matter of playing our game and relaxing and having fun and we did that," said Walmach after the victory.Both White and Walmach felt that the fact they've both improved individually has helped them as doubles players. White felt that their intensity has been higher this season and that the loss in last year's tournament gave them an extra incentive to better their performance."For the most part, our volleys were definitely better than last year, and on top of that, I think our communication on the court was better," explained White. "We were looking forward to this match a lot. We just played really well out there and they did, too."did, too."All of the teams had to battle on a brisk, windy day at Saucon Valley High School and the effect of the wind was obvious, especially on lobs. Pleasant Valley picked up a key point when Harrison didn't move to play a ball that seemed destined to be out, but was brought back, just inside the line by the wind.In the other semifinal match, the team of Matt FitzMaurice and Rowan Hobson downed a team from Stroudsburg 6-1, 6-2 to earn their spot in the finals. FitzMaurice took a silver medal last Monday in the district singles tournament after edging White 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 in their singles semifinal match. FitzMaurice and Hobson are the top-seeded team in the tournament and had little trouble playing through their side of the bracket.FitzMaurice and Hobson were last year's silver medal duo in districts, falling to Kshatri and Igor Ivanov of Parkland 6-4, 6-2 in the finals."I think we have a pretty decent shot at them," White said. "The game is inside, so the conditions will be ideal, so if we just play our games, I think we'll be alright."Ironically, it was a different team from Emmaus Kyle Jaeger and Mark Hensler that ousted White and Walmach last season, giving Pleasant Valley a bit of a shot at some revenge."I'm not really thinking about that. I just know that they're really good players and that we have to play well to beat them," said Walmach. "We can't go out and be tense, we have to just relax and we'll be alright."The match will be played at Lehigh University's Lewis Tennis Center Monday at 12:30, with the Class AA Finals, featuring teams from Moravian Academy and Notre Dame of Green Pond, following at 2:30 p.m.