Anne Stewart Piazza and Ashley Jarratt have played each other in practice. They’ve played together as a doubles team. The fact they know each other so well added an element of familiarity and fun when they went head-to-head Saturday at Halls Ferry Park in a championship match of the DSA youth tennis tournament.

In a match punctuated by long rallies, Piazza bested her St. Aloysius teammate in a third-set tiebreaker 6-4, 4-6, 10-5 to win the 18-year-olds’ girls’ championship.

Piazza and Jarratt played more than a dozen points in the match that lasted 10 or more shots.

“We’re on the same team for school. We’ve played doubles together before. So it’s weird, but it’s fun at the same time,” Piazza said. “We play together all the time, so we pretty much know each other and our shots.”

Jarratt struggled through the first half of the match. She lost the first set, and then fell behind 3-1 in the second. She hit several powerful forehand shots into the net to cost herself points.

“You just want to win, and you just try a little harder. You just try some harder shots,” Jarratt said. “I tried to hit it a little softer.”

The adjustment in tactics worked. Jarratt won five of the last six games to take the second set and force the 10-point tiebreaker. The third set started off as even as the rest of the match, with the two players trading points. Piazza finally pulled away by winning five of the last six to take the match.

“I was just taking it point by point, really. That’s what you have to do when it gets tight like that. I have a little more experience than Ashley in tiebreakers since I’m a little older than her. So it was easier for me, probably, to stay calm,” said Piazza, who is heading into her junior year at St. Al. Jarratt is entering the eighth grade.

Although Piazza won this round, there was no trash-talking or hard feelings afterward. They posed for pictures with their respective trophies and complimented each other on a good match before parting ways for the day.

“I was mainly playing for practice, but it’s always good to win,” Piazza said. “I’m excited I won. Ashley’s really good, so it feels good to win over her.”