HELLERTOWN - Some players enter the District 11 tennis tournament with specific goals. They want to advance to the second round, or make it to the second day, or maybe even play for a championship.

But for Pleasant Valley's Devin Kagel, the goal was more subjective than specific."I just wanted to play my best," Kagel said minutes after dropping a tightly contested 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 decision to Pocono Mountain East's Camille Famularo in the opening round of the Class AAA singles tourney."I thought I did that," added Kagel. "Despite the loss, I'm happy with how I played."The fact that she even was part of Wednesday's field was satisfaction enough for the Pleasant Valley senior considering the journey she had to get there.A year ago, Kagel was playing No. 4 doubles for the Bears. But the departure of eight senior members of that team created a huge void in the PV line-up, pushing Kagel into the No. 1 singles position this season."I'm really proud of how Devin handled herself this season and also proud of how she played today. She was our captain and our leader throughout the season," said Bears coach Mark Allison. "I've been coaching both the girls and boys teams at Pleasant Valley for 22 years and I've never had a player in either program make the kind of line-up jump she did this year. That's extremely difficult."Not only was it a huge leap up the ladder, but the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference was extremely deep and talented at the No. 1 singles position this year so she had to play a lot of very good players."Kagel, who received an automatic berth into the field as PV's No. 1 singles player, entered the tourney with just a 3-13 record. But in a battle of unseeded players, she pushed Famularo to the limit before falling.The players traded games through most of the opening set before Kagel tied the match at 6-6 to force a tie-breaker. She quickly went up 3-1 in the tie-breaker before her Cardinal opponent battled back for the win. In the second set, Kagel jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Famularo won five of the next six games to take control and she eventually finished off the victory."It was a good match," said Allison. "Both girls hit some very nice shots. In a match as evenly played and tight as this one, it boils down to just a few points here and there being the difference."Kagel credited Famularo's ball placement with making that difference."She did a really nice job of moving the ball and hitting lines," said Kagel. "She won a number of big points with shots right down the line."But the fact that I got to play in the district singles tournament with all these great players and almost won a match is something that makes me proud."THE BEAR FACTS ... This is the first time in three years that Pleasant Valley had just one player in the Class AAA singles tourney. Last season the Bears had three players (Madison Olexson, Kara Urland and Paola Mieles) in the tourney and in 2013 they had (Olexson and Emily Thek).UPSET CITY ... The District seeds the top eight players in the 32-person field and seven of the eight reached the quarterfinals. The only seeded player to fall was Southern Lehigh's Katie Cole. The fourth-seeded Cole lost to Freedom freshman Natalie Sinai, 6-3, 6-3.ANTICIPATION ... The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of both the AA and AAA tourney have been moved up from Friday to today. The district made that decision because of the rain in Friday's weather forecast.