ALLENTOWN - Pleasant Valley was up against a strong Parkland team in the first round of the District 11 Class 3A team tennis tournament on Monday.

There were some bright spots for the Bears, but ultimately the Trojans overpowered them on their way to a 5-0 quarterfinal round victory.

“Parkland beat us during the season, and a lot of the sets in their individual matches were by 6-0 scores. So we knew what we were up against going in,” Pleasant Valley head coach Laura Ammermann said. “Our kids didn’t win a lot of games off them the first tme we played, so it was hard to be optimistic about upseting them.”

Instead, the Bears focused on improvement from the regular-season match.

“I have to say that today we played relaxed,” said Ammermann. “There wasn’t a lot of pressure on us. Our kids went out there and really enjoyed themselves.

“We won a lot more games against them this time - which was a definite positive.”

Pleasant Valley did that despite having to juggle its lineup as senior Ben Keppel wasn’t available, and Logan Krock had to take his spot at No. 3 singles.

“We were down a man today,” Ammermann said. “Ben (Keppel) had our most compeittive match against them during the regular season. He went three sets with (Tommy) Gilchrist before falling.

“I was disappointed he didn’t get another shot at him today. I would’ve liked to see how that would have gone. But he was sick today, so we had to do a fill-in for him, and Logan stepped in and won a couple of games, so I was happy about that.”

The Bears snapped a five-year District 11 team tournament drought this season.

“The season went much better than I expected,” Ammermann said. “The season got off to a positive start when we beat Easton in our first match and I think that set the tone for the rest of the season.

“The boys got a lot of confidence from that match, and built on that throughout the course of the season.”

BRIGHT SPOT ... The Bears best performance on Monday came from the No. 2 doubles team of Aaron Rehrig and Jens Hansen. Rehrig and Hansen led Parkland 4-3 at one point in the opening set, but the Parkland duo of Ryan Wu and Matt Ringold were able to come back to secure a 6-4, 6-1 victory.

UNDERDOGS ... Not only did Parkland sweep the Bears 7-0 during the regular season, it entered the match as the No. 2 seed in 3A, while PV came in as the No. 7 seed.

OVER .500 ... The Bears finished the season with a 9-7 record.

ROOKIE SEASON ... Ammermann succeeded long-time Pleasant Valley coach Mark Allison this season after spending several years as his assistant coach.

Parkland 5, Pleasant Valley 0

SINGLES

Manav Patel (P) def. John Hargrave 6-0, 6-2; Kevin Yao (P) def. Noah Dolan 6-0, 6-2; Tommy Gilchrist (P) def. Logan Krock 6-2, 6-1.

DOUBLES

Ojas Karandikar/Yechan Cho (P) def. Roman Steuer/Chris Lanier 6-0, 6-0; Ryan Wu/Matt Ringold (P) def. Aaron Rehrig/Jens Hansen, 6-4, 6-1.