Shelter Island girls tennis team 6-0 in league play

The Shelter Island JV girls tennis team had two great matches last week.

On Monday we went to Southold where we started the match with a 2 to 0 lead and just rolled from there. The three singles, Keri Ann Mahoney, Emily Hyatt and Madi Hallman, all won easily, losing only five games between them. The two doubles teams — Evi Saunders and Nicole Poleshuk at first and Jenny Case and Brianna Kimmelamann at second — also won easily.

Tuesday’s match against Center Moriches was a different story, a real barn burner, coming down to the last match on the courts.
At first singles Keri Ann was tested in the opening set but prevailed in a tiebreaker and went on to win the second set 6-0. Score one for Shelter Island.

Emily had a real battle against Mackenzie Walsh at second singles. She lost the first set 6-3 and then took the second set 6-4. So a tiebreaker was needed for the third set. Emily was down 6-1, battled back to tie the score at 6-6, but lost 9-7. It was a great effort falling a little short. Final tally: Shelter Island 1, Center Moriches 1.

Madi played great at third singles, winning a well-fought battle 6-4, 6-4.

With Caitlin Binder, my usual fourth singles player, out sick, I had to change the line-up a little. I took Jenny, a second doubles player, and moved her to fourth singles. This would end up being the last and deciding match.

Evi and Nicole had a tough match at first doubles. They lost the first set 6-2, won the second set 6-4. Now we had another third set tiebreaker. The girls played strong, winning the tiebreaker 7-2 for a result of Shelter Island 3, Center Moriches 1.

At second doubles Brianna paired up with Taylor Sherman. They also split sets and needed a third set tiebreaker. Unfortunately they didn’t fare as well, losing the tiebreaker 7-2.

At third doubles Cameron Clark and Francesca Frasco, who are both playing tennis for the first time, fell short, losing 6-1, 6-3 to Alexis Knowles and Kayla O’Leary: Shelter Island 3, Center Moriches 3.

It all came down to the last match on the courts with Jenny playing fourth singles. She started off strong, winning the first set 6-0. She was the only one still playing and we didn’t want to tell her she was the deciding match. She continued to play well, winning the second set 6-1 and thus winning the match for us.

Overall score Shelter Island 4, Center Moriches 3. Job well done!

We have a home match against Center Moriches Friday, I hope to see you there and I hope the match will be as competitive as the last one. Other home matches coming up: Monday, October 7 against Southold and Wednesday, October 9, against Mattittuck — our last home match.