Bucktail found itself in an unfortunate hole right away before Tuesday’s District 4 girls tennis team tournament semifinal had even begun at Williamsport High School. The Bucks were without their No. 2 singles player and had to forfeit that matchup, meaning they were trailing Loyalsock 1-0 before play started.

It surely wasn’t an ideal spot for the Bucks, especially against a standout team like Loyalsock. The Lancers proved ultimately to be too tough to defeat, and being down a singles player didn’t help for Bucktail, as Loyalsock secured a 3-1 win against Bucktail to advance to Thursday’s District 4 team tournament final at a location to be determined.

The Lancers will face Danville, who were 3-0 winners against Hughesville.

“It’s very exciting. It hasn’t happened in a while and our team is very excited,” Loyalsock’s Vivian Reem said. “We’re still pretty young so we have time to grow more and we’ve really improved. We’re excited to move on.”

Bucktail and Loyalsock split the doubles matchups, meaning Tuesday’s semifinal would come down to the singles competition.

“We’ve known all season that Loyalsock was going to be a tough team if we even got here,” Bucktail coach Alison Heiser said. “You always look at stats and see ‘well we beat this team and Loyalsock lost to them.’ We were hopeful, but we didn’t have our second singles player either, so that didn’t help matters.”

McKenna Bissman and Kelsie Wagner earned a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 1 doubles over Loyalsock’s Lashlyn Sauers and Kaylene Kriner, which evened the match at 1-1. Loyalsock’s Kinsley Hill and Annalise Berger earned a No. 2 doubles win over Carrie Ditty and Riley Salizzoni, 6-0, 6-2, to put Loyalsock back ahead, 2-1.

It was then Reem who secured a 6-2, 6-3 win over Lola English to secure the Lancers’ semifinal victory on a chilly Tuesday afternoon.

At No. 2 doubles, the Lancers’ duo played well from the get go. After a 6-0 first-set win, the Lancers trailed Bucktail 1-0 before going ahead 2-1 and 4-1 before allowing Bucktail to secure another point. But the Lancers held off any Bucktail rally attempt to try and force a third set.

“We were good at our first serves. I think honestly our volleys came together and overall, our hits (too),” Hill said. 

“Our returns,” Berger added as to what worked for her and Hill, “we sweep them up pretty good on that.”

Ditty and Salizzoni made it difficult at times for Berger and Hill to secure points, however.

“When they return our serves and it wasn’t very far over the net and gets caught between net and base line, those are kind of hard to navigate sometimes,” Hill said.

While Bucktail did score two in the second-set, Hill and Berger never allowed the momentum to shift away and let Bucktail win to force a possible third set.

“It’s much easier to put away those wins when you don’t let them shift it,” Hill said.

“Just aim where you want the ball to go and aim it like that,” Berger added.

At No. 1 doubles, Bucktail trailed Loyalsock in the first set 2-1 before Bissman and Wagner took a 3-2 lead. From there, Bissman and Wagner kept it up and went ahead 5-2 before securing the 6-2 first-set victory. In the second set, Loyalsock’s Sauers and Kriner would cut the deficit down to 4-1, but that was as close as the Lancers came as Bissman and Wagner won, 6-2.

At No. 3 singles, Reem led 1-0 and 2-1 before extending her lead to 4-1 in the first set. English would make it a 5-2 game, but Reem was able to close it out. In the second set, English made things interesting by staying with Reem, but the Lancer would walk away with a 6-3 win to secure the match.

Loyalsock’s Caroline Crawford led Bucktail’s Eva Sockman after winning the first set, 6-4, and leading 5-4 in the second before the match was pulled with the win sealed.

It was Reem’s win at No. 3 singles which gave the Lancers a trip to the district final on Thursday.

“I think just making sure I get the ball back every time and taking my time when I go back to serve, I bounce the ball a couple more times to calm down a little bit and get my breath,” Reem said. “Just taking it easy and slow.”

Reem added that winning the first set 6-2 helped her calm nerves and any anxiousness she may have had.

“I think once I get into the groove of things I can keep going and it pushes me to just win,” Reem noted.

The Lancer noted that English  got a lot of balls back to her consistently and had a hard first-serve that was tough at times to play against.

For Bucktail, the season comes to an end in the semifinals, but it was a season coach Heiser was proud about. Bucktail entered Districts as the No. 3 seed and secured a quarterfinal win against Lewisburg, 3-0, to reach Tuesday’s semifinals.

It’s even more impressive for the Bucks given they started the year with just seven girls on the roster, barely enough to field a full match.

“We started off with seven girls this season, we had to get two off the cheerleading squad so that we had a few extras to have nine girls. Throughout this whole season they just fought. To be able to even compete in this was a feat of itself,” Heiser said. “I couldn’t be more proud. Obviously, it didn’t go the way we had hoped, but you know they still played a great match today. We’re looking forward to doubles on Saturday. We have four girls who are going to play doubles on Saturday. We’re looking forward to that.”

Loyalsock 3, Bucktail 1

SINGLES

1. Caroline Crawford (L) led Eva Sockman, 6-4, 5-4 (pulled); 2. Gia Biacchi (L) by forfeit; 3. Vivian Reem (L) def. Lola English, 6-2, 6-3.

DOUBLES

1. McKenna Bissman/Kelsie Wagner (B) def. Lashlyn Sauers/Kaylene Kriner 6-2, 6-1; 2. Kinsley Hill/Annalise Berger (L) def. Carrie Ditty/Riley Salizzoni, 6-0, 6-2.