EMMAUS — After opening the season 1-5, a trip to districts didn’t seem like it was going to be happening for Pleasant Valley this season.

After that though, the team rattled off 12 straight wins and came into the team tennis portion of districts as the No. 6 seed with a first-round match against Emmaus, a team they had lost to early in the season.

While they were happy to be playing in districts, the Bears didn’t come in with the attitude that they were just content to be there. They came in looking to upset third-seeded Emmaus, but fell short and dropped a 4-1 decision to the Hornets on Monday, ending the season for Pleasant Valley.

“I knew Emmaus would get a win at No. 1 singles, but I thought No. 2 and No. 3 singles and the doubles would be close, so we had to get three out of those four,” explained PV coach Mark Allison. “We came up short, but getting into team districts is a great thing for us.

“We beat Stroudsburg to make us probably the best team in the Pocono area. I was really pleased with how the season went.”

Things got off to a good start for the Bears when Jake Ammermann beat Grant Haffner 6-4, 6-1 at No. 2 singles, but Emmaus came back to pick up their expected win at No. 1 singles, where District 11 singles champion Sean Jaeger beat Josh Schaffner 6-0, 6-1 to even things up.

At No. 3 singles, Pleasant Valley’s Najja Francis played a tough match, but lost to Kevin Ge 6-3, 6-3.

With Pleasant Valley (13-5 overall, 10-4 EPC) needing to win both doubles contests, attention turned to the match between Brian Kagel and Jason Allesch going up against Emmaus’ Aman Malik and Ryan Peiffer. The duos split the first two sets, and then Pleasant Valley came back to tie the third set and send it to a tie-breaker. The tie-breaker went back and forth, until Emmaus eventually ended the drama and picked up a 20-18 win to take the third set 7-6 and give Emmaus the victory in the first round of team districts.

Mike Tauer and John Berry would also fall in three sets 1-6, 6-3, 1-6 in their doubles match, as Emmaus (13-2, 12-2) took the match.

Allison pointed out that the weather early in the season wasn’t conducive to getting practices in for the team. The schedule was also stacked, with many of the top teams in the area on the early part of the schedule. Their first five EPC opponents – Emmaus, Nazareth (15-1, 14-0), Northampton (9-7, 7-7), Liberty (13-1, 13-1) and Bethlehem Catholic (6-9, 6-8) ­— all reached team districts.

“Once we started getting more matches in – our practices were basically matches, because of the weather – we just started to get better,” Allison noted. “I would say that seven or eight matches in, things started to really click for us and kids were refining their game a little better and our doubles kids were getting used to playing together more.”

NEXT UP ... All of the top four seeds reached the semifinals in 3A districts. Nazareth (1) will play Liberty (4) and Emmaus (3) will be at Parkland (2) today. For the Bears, they’ll wait to see the brackets for the District 11 Doubles tournament.

LOOKING BACK ... Ammerman won both of his matches against Emmaus players this season. In the first meeting between the two teams, Ammerman played at No. 3 singles and beat Kevin Ge 6-1, 6-1.

Emmaus 4, Pleasant Valley 1

SINGLES

Sean Jaeger (E) def Josh Schaffner (PV) 6-0, 6-1, Jake Ammerman (PV) def Grant Haffner (E) 6-4, 6-1, Kevin Ge (E) def Najja Francis (PV) 6-3, 6-3

DOUBLES

Aman Malik/Ryan Peiffer (E) def Brian Kagel/Jason Allesch (PV) 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (20-18), Aiden Springs/Quinn Erk (E) def Mike Tauer/John Berry 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.