Lancaster Country Day senior Julia Casselbury found herself in uncharted waters in the championship match of the District Three Class AA tennis singles tournament.

For Hempfield's Mackenzie Smith, her match in the Class AAA semifinals had an exhaustingly familiar feel.

Pressed to the limit by Wyomissing junior Audrey Ann Blakely, Casselbury prevailed, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6), Monday afternoon at the Hershey Racquet Club.

It was the third time Casselbury bested Blakely for the AA title and it was the most competitive match of her scholastic career.

Pressed beyond the limit, Smith needed three sets, and three hours and 22 minutes, to dispatch Susquehannock's Katie Wagner, 6-7, (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

This coming a week after claiming the Lancaster-Lebanon League AAA title on twin tiebreakers.

"I've had enough (of tiebreakers)," said Smith, whose reward was a championship-match berth opposite defending AAA queen Cara Wirth of Wilson. Wirth successfully defended her crown with a 6-1, 6-0 victory.

Both Casselbury and Smith qualified for the PIAA championships, which will be held at Hershey Nov. 4-5.

Casselbury will be shooting for her third AA state title.

Smith, the AAA third seed out of District Three last year, will be looking to make a deeper run this time.

Two years ago, pondering a reporter's suggestion of a burgeoning rivalry with Blakely, Casselbury responded, "I think we can make each other better. I know she definitely made me raise my game today."

Blakely, a freshman at the time, took the first set 6-4 before Casselbury pulled together to take the next two sets, 6-1, 6-1.

By the time they met in the 2010 finals, Casselbury's game had gone to a whole new level, a fact Blakely admitted Monday.

"She really upped her game and just came out attacking me," Blakely recalled. "I was not expecting that at all."

Casselbury needed just 56 minutes to prevail, 6-0, 6-1.

That was then.

This was now.

"She was a lot more consistent today," said Casselbury.

Awakening the echoes of '09, Blakely broke to a 3-1 lead in the first set.

In the eighth game she placed a sweet, short cross-court winner just inside the line, then went up 5-4.

Blakely staved off five game points in the 10th game before Casselbury buried an ace, broke Blakely one more time, then served out to win a 55-minute first set, 7-5.

Each player protected her service as the second set opened. During the fifth game, ultimately won by Blakely, a line call that each felt was hers sparked a heated fury in Blakely.

She wasn't the only one in need of a chill.

Casselbury asked for, and received permission to, vacate the court to powder her nose.

"Things got a little bit testy," she said.

Suitably calmed, Casselbury returned to the court, won the next three games and twice held match point in game nine.

Blakely saved, then served out and took the next two games as well, again denying Casselbury on three game point situations in the 11th.

With a 12th-game win in hand, Casselbury fell behind 3-1 in the tiebreaker, got even at 3-3, then fell behind 6-4 before running the last four points, capping the afternoon with a service ace to close out the tiebreaker.

In Wagner, Smith found an opponent as doggedly tenacious, or tenaciously dogged, as she.

An unhappy surprise as Smith had defeated Wagner, 6-0, 6-1 in last year's AAA quarterfinals.

Moving the ball, setting up for the eventual winner, Smith would all too often find that winner coming back at her. And the cycle would begin anew.

"I never really felt frustrated," she said. "I was just over-hitting in the first and second sets, going for shots I shouldn't have."

Up 4-2 in the first set, Smith fell behind 5-4, then won an 18-point deuce game in the 11th to go up 6-5.

But Wagner forced the tiebreaker, then scored a sweet, cross-court passing shot to win the set.

She broke Smith in the second set opener and split the first six games before Smith went up 5-3.

Wagner knotted it at 5-5, but Smith took two of the next three and this time the tiebreak was hers. "Definitely a big relief," she said.

After all that, Smith's 6-4 fulfillment in the decisive third set was almost anticlimactic.

In the final, Wirth's serves and returns never gave Smith an opening to exploit.

dbyrne@lnpnews.com