Indians ace Devils, racquets swinging

The junior high tennis team has reason to smile after its 6-1 victory over the Center Moriches Red Devils.

Shelter Island junior high tennis solidly defeated Center Moriches on the Indians’ home court Tuesday, scoring a 6-1 victory.


“We thought we would do well coming into it,” said third-year Coach Sue Warner, since Center Moriches is an inexperienced team. But that’s not to downplay the Shelter Island victory, since the Indians themselves are fairly inexperienced. The team is comprised of 10 girls, three 7th-graders and seven 8th-graders, although many of those 8th-graders have never played before. Some just switched to the team this year after running last year on the now-defunct cross-country team.


The team needs to work on serves, footwork and not hitting the ball late, says Coach Warner. But on the whole, “the most important thing for them right now is getting out and hitting balls.” And with a rigorous schedule of five one-and-a-half-hour practices a week, they hit plenty.


This was an encouraging victory after last week’s 0-7 defeat after losing three tie-breakers at the hands of East Hampton (it was really a 0-6 loss, but the Indians defaulted a court). The game format is four singles matches and three doubles. The match-ups are arranged by skill level, so the best Shelter Island singles player is playing the best singles player from the opposing team.


Tuesday’s victory brings their season record to 1-1, right on par with Coach Warner’s season goal. Overall, in their season’s 10 matches, “I think we’ll be competitive with the other schools,” said Coach Warner. “I’m looking to go .500.”


The girls are clearly enthusiastic about the game. While waiting for their matches, some wandered over to the tennis wall, or “the structure,” as they call it, to hit some balls and stay loose. And as soon as a court opened up as league matches were ending, some players who had already finished their matches asked if they could jump back on the courts and play for fun. 


Still later, as the day was winding down and the courts were emptying, the girls joined some Center Moriches girls to form a giant circle in an impromptu game of “keep-it-up,” in which they’d hit the ball to one another and try not to let it hit the ground. It seems they’ll take any opportunity to have fun swinging their racquets.


Hopefully the Indians can build on Tuesday’s win and take home a victory at their next match at Hampton Bays at 4:15 p.m. today, October 8.