BETHLEHEM - There were plenty of highlights for Jim Thorpe’s Tara McLean and Hailey Trine on the opening day of the District 11 Class 2A Doubles Tournament on Monday at Lehigh University.

But there weren’t quite enough to get the Olympian duo to Day Two of the tournament.

That’s because Notre Dame of Green Pond’s Amber Unger and Veronica Lynn called Olympians’ highlight reel shots and raised them with plenty of big shots of their own.

The second-seeded Crusaders pulled away late in the first set and then flexed their muscles in the second set for a 6-3, 6-1 quarterfinal round victory over the Thorpe pair.

McLean and Trine had earned their berth in the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Pen Argyl’s Lilly Falletta and Sadie Roethke during the opening round of the tournament earlier in the day.

“I thought Tara and Hailey played great today,” said Jim Thorpe coach Sam Lux. “It’s always tough when you lose and your season comes to an end - especially as a senior - but that was an outstanding Notre Dame team, and I felt like we hung right with them.”

High school tennis uses no ad(vantage) scoring, which means whoever wins the deuce point wins the game. The Crusaders were perfect in those games, capturing every deuce point during the match.

“The final score doesn’t reflect how close the match was,” said Lux. “I believe we lost four or five deuce games. We win a couple of those games, and it could have been a totally different match.”

Although McLean and Trine weren’t able to beat Notre Dame, they did accomplish something that no Jim Thorpe doubles team had done in the last six years - they got a District 11 tournament victory.

The seventh-seeded Olympians did that by powering past unseeded Pen Argyl in the first round.

“It’s not easy to get a win in districts, especially since they decreased the tournament field a few years ago from 32 teams to just 16,” said Lux. “Because of that, there are no easy matches. Every team playing here today is a good team.

“We got off to a slow start against Pen Argyl, but I think that might have been a little bit of nerves. Once we settled down, I thought Tara and Hailey did a great job of controlling the match.”

The Thorpe players trailed 2-1 in the first set, but won five of the next six games. The second set was tied early at 1-1, but the Olympians won five straight games to close out the match.

“I thought we played well today,” said McLean. “Hailey and I play off each other in doubles. Her strength is her net play, and mine is my ground strokes. I think that combination is what makes us a good doubles team.

“Although it’s never fun to lose, there was a lot to be happy about today. It was really nice to get the win against Pen Argyl. I don’t think that’s happened in a while for a Jim Thorpe doubles team. We would have liked to get that second win, but the Notre Dame girls were good. Give them credit, they hit some really nice shots.”

Trine agreed with that assessment.

“Notre Dame was a really good team, but I thought we played well against them,” she said. “There are always points you would like to have over where you made some mistakes, but I gave it all I had. I was happy with how we competed and how well we played.”

LONG TIME COMING ... Not only was the win against Pen Argyl the first district doubles victory for a Thorpe team since 2016, but McLean and Trine are the first Jim Thorpe girls doubles team to reach the quarterfinals in school history. According to long-time Thorpe coach Norb Lienhard, since the girls program began in 1996, no other team had accomplished that feat. Prior to the tournament being reduced to 16 teams in recent years, reaching the quarterfinals required two wins.

OUTDOOR/INDOOR TOURNAMENT ... After playing the Pen Argyl match on Lehigh’s outdoor courts and then starting the Notre Dame match outside as well, the Olympians and all the other remaining 2A and 3A players had to move to Lehigh’s indoor courts when an afternoon rain shower popped up. Thorpe was trailing 3-1 in the second set when play was halted and moved indoors.