ERIE — Traveling to Westwood Racquet Club for the third time in five days, three Warren pairs competed in the District 10 AAA Doubles Tournament on Wednesday.

While traditionally a District 10 event, the tournament has become even more competitive over the past two years with the addition of teams from District 8 (Allderdice) and District 9 (DuBois).

The first Dragons pair in action was Warren’s No. 3 team of Gaven Mealy and Josh Westover. The duo fell in the opening round to McDowell’s second team, 8-2.

Warren’s No. 2 pair, Gabe Dougherty and Karson McCollough, opened the day with a strong 8-1 victory over Erie’s third team. In the quarterfinals, they squared off against the No. 2 seeded McDowell pair, last year’s district runners-up, and dropped a hard-fought 8-4 decision.

“Our boys really played tough against a great team in this matchup,” said Warren head coach Thomas Pellegrino. “They got down early 2-5, but battled back to make it 4-5. We had several game points throughout the match, but McDowell didn’t give away many free points and eventually closed things off 8-4.”

Warren’s top doubles team and No. 4 overall seed, Lucas Thrift and Jaxon Thrift, began their tournament run with an 8-3 win over Meadville’s top pair. In the quarterfinals, they faced a talented duo from Pittsburgh Allderdice in a back-and-forth battle.

Trailing 5-7 late in the match, the Dragons rallied to win three straight games and took an 8-7 lead before Allderdice held serve to force a tiebreaker. The Pittsburgh pair eventually pulled away for a 7-4 tiebreak win.

Pellegrino added, “Jaxon and Lucas played some great tennis today against a quality team from Pittsburgh. We knew it would be a battle after watching them compete in singles earlier this week. It really just came down to a couple points here and there.”

Warren finishes the season with a 13-3 overall record, a District 10 runner-up finish, and a Tri-County Championship.

“Overall, we are extremely proud of the season we had and believe we exceeded expectations. We lost four of our top starters from last season and had a very young varsity lineup. We weren’t projected to finish this high in the region or make it back to the finals, but the boys put in the work and put together a great list of wins over some top teams in the area.”

The Dragons return six starters next season and hope to build on this year’s success heading into the offseason.