BLOOMSBURG -- Jon Cook, one of the prodigal sons of the Danville boys tennis program, knew what to tell his players heading into Saturday's start of the District 4 doubles tournament at Bloomsburg University.

Cook, who claimed district doubles titles following the 2001 and '02 seasons, told his players that they needed to serve well, return serve well, and be aggressive at the net.

The Ironmen, especially the squad's top team of Peter Blankenship and Greg Bowser, paid close attention.

And when Blankenship and Bowser needed more words of wisdom from their coach in the midst of a tough quarterfinal match, Cook had the right words to get his players through it.

Blankenship and Bowser, the tournament's No. 3-seeded team, defeated Central Columbia's No. 6-seeded duo of T.J. Brandt and Dustin Hartzel 6-4, 6-3 to advance to Monday's semifinals.

Cook, who admitted that memories from his glory days with the Ironmen flashed back during the quarterfinal match, said, "We knew Central would be a very good match. They have a great doubles team and I don't know if they've lost all year."

After they breezed through the first two rounds without losing a single game, Blankenship and Bowser had problems getting the upper hand in the match with Brandt-Hartzel.

Both teams held their serve through the first eight games of the opening set, but then the Ironmen got the service break they needed to go up 5-4 before holding their serve in the next game to win 6-4.

"Pete and Greg came out and stayed with it and held serve all through the first set, and they finally got that break at the end," Cook said. "(The break) was big. The way the match was (turning out), it was going to come down to whoever got broken was going to lose the set because nobody was losing serve."

Coaches are allowed to talk to their players for 5 minutes in between sets, and whatever Cook told Blankenship and Bowser during theirs must have registered.

Blankenship and Cook picked up three service breaks in the first six games of the second set to get out to a commanding 5-1 lead.

A little overconfidence by the Ironmen allowed Brandt and Hartzel to win the next two games and briefly get back into the match, but Blankenship and Bowser settled down and won the next game and the match.

"(The quarterfinal match) really challenged us for the first time all day. We were a little rusty heading into the quarters because we didn't have much of a match to that point," Blankenship said. "We thought it would go better in the second set. It was going well until we got a little overconfident at the end, but we pulled through."

"We hit a little bit of a bumpy road when we got ahead of ourselves in the second set, but we pulled it out," Bowser said. "Our serve returns and some instruction from our coach is pretty much what did it for us."

The next challenge for Blankenship and Bowser will be a semifinal match with Hughesville's No. 2-seeded team of Stephen James and Dan Fritz.