BETHLEHEM - Jim Thorpe tennis coach Sam Lux doesn’t want his players dwelling on Monday’s loss in the opening round of the District 11 Doubles tournament.

Instead, the first-year mentor insists the four girls think about the journey that got them there.

“You can’t judge the entire season by the last match,” Lux said. “They had a great season.

“They all improved so much, and the seniors had one of the more successful teams our school has had in the program’s history.”

Luck wasn’t on the Olympians side, as their doubles teams of Gabby Nunez and Tara McLean, and Taylor Saba and Kaylinn Trine, both drew seeded pairs in their opening rounds.

Nunez and McLean faced familiar foes in Blue Mountain’s Aspen Weizer and Natalie Rubinkam, who entered the tourney as the No. 8 seed. The schools faced each other twice during the regular season, with the players meeting each other in singles play.

The Eagles’ duo gained a decisive 6-2 decision in the first set, but Thorpe’s pair battled in the second before eventually falling by a 7-5 score.

Whether it was an advantage or disadvantage, the scoring in the tournament was different. And it definitely came into play during Nunez and McLean’s match.

“It was the way the tournament was structured, as they did no-ad scoring,” Lux said. “At deuce, you played for one point to win that game. I would say out of 22 games they played, I think 11 to 14 of them would have been deuce games. So, all of those games, it ended up coming down to one point.

“The score might not have looked that close, but the match was extremely close. It could have really broken either way. Unfortunately, it didn’t break our way.”

While Nunez and McLean didn’t gain a favorable draw, the matchup for Saba and Trine was even more difficult, as they had to face the tourney’s second-seeded team - Bethlehem Catholic’s Cara Magliochetti and Taylor Adams.

Magliochetti and Adams advanced with a 6-0, 6-0 victory, but the Olympians played a number of games close.

“Taylor and Kaylinn had a tough match, but they both walked away very positive, and I’m very happy with the way they played,” said Lux. “They forced deuce a lot of the time. They made them earn the points against them instead of giving away free points. So, they hung in there, and I’m very proud of them.”

END OF THE LINE ... The opening-round losses officially ends Thorpe’s tennis season, one in which it posted a solid 11-5 record.

UNLUCKY SEVEN … The seventh-seeded team was the only seeded duo to lose in the opening round. Becahi’s pair of Patty Superka and Grace Hartman dropped a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Salisbury’s Krista Bonge and Mackenzie Hankee.

STAYING ALIVE … After defeating Thorpe’s Saba and Trine, Magliochetti and Adams won 6-0, 6-2 in the quarterfinals to reach the Final Four. They will face the sixth-seeded duo of Keiran Lencheski and Amber Unger from Notre Dame-Green Pond in the semis.