And the beat goes on.

That is to say, the beat of a tennis ball struck by the racket of Northwestern’s Mallory Conner, who scored two victories in Monday’s District 11 Class 2A Girls Tennis Tournament at Lehigh University.

In her first-round match, the second-seeded Conner defeated Reese Eskesen of Palisades by scores of 6-0, 6-0.

“I just made sure I kept the ball on the court, and didn’t hit any bad shots,” she said.

In the quarterfinal match, the two-time District silver medalist — and a bronze medalist as a freshman — faced Valentina Munoz of Allentown Central Catholic, a first-round victor over Jim Thorpe’s Keira Reese. Conner won the match 6-1, 6-0.

“I worked on consistency again with my shots,” she said. “There were longer rallies than in the first match. I mixed up my forehand and backhand to move her around the court. I don’t really concern myself with knowing about my opponents’ skills. I just play my game.”

Conner continues to build her tennis résumé with a collection of awards. She is a former two-time Times News Girls Tennis Player of the Year, and a three-time first-team Middle States Girls Junior Sportsman winner. She has also earned other honors, including Athlete of the Week from the Times News/Lehigh Valley Health Network. And she has accomplished all of this without being a member of a high school tennis team, since Northwestern doesn’t have one.

“When I play singles, I’m really representing myself,” she said. “I would have loved to play doubles just for fun, but that was never to be.”

On Wednesday, Conner will play No. 3 seed Vicky Guo of Moravian Academy in the semifinals at 12 p.m. at Lehigh.

“All I know is she came to her school from Ohio, is new to the area and is their number one singles,” Conner said. “My strategy will be the same. That is to have no unforced errors, play my game and make adjustments game by game.”

Should she win, Conner will advance to the finals, with a possible rematch against last year’s district champ, Bernadette Gasser of Allentown Central Catholic, who will face her teammate, Madelyn Groff, in the other semifinal.

Sometimes, an unseeded player who loses a match can walk away feeling like a winner.

Jim Thorpe senior Reese battled Munoz before falling by scores of 6-3, 6-4.

Olympians coach Emilio Mercado was proud of his player, and the performance she put forth Monday.

“Keira was on point in her first set, using a strong backhand to take a 2-1 lead in games,” Mercado said. “She then lost the next two games, and we talked about her being too easy on her volleys and not aggressive enough. She then won the third game.”

Reese was familiar with Munoz, having played against her in a doubles match last year. Mercado said Reese used to be “purely a slap player” who would often hit balls too far out of bounds. This year, her 9-6 singles record was an improvement, largely because she learned how to put spin on the ball.

Being more aggressive helped her win the third game of the first set, but Munoz’s mobility and ability to use the entire court helped her close out the set. In the second set, Reese won the first game and continued to play with great effort to try to keep momentum.

“There were a lot of long rallies and back-and-forth points,” Mercado said. “A double fault on a serve hurt her chance.” With the score tied at two games each, Munoz’s strong crosscourt serves at wide angles made a big difference in her winning the match.

“Keira had a great season for us,” Mercado said. “Even though she lost to the bigger schools, she won matches against Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg, Tamaqua and Pottsville, who play more at our level. Her biggest improvement was in having confidence in her game. She was happy with her performance, as was I today.”