JV girls tennis goes 8-1 in league play

The Shelter Island JV girls tennis team had a good week, going 2-1, winning against Shoreham Wading River and Center Moriches but falling to Riverhead.

On Monday, we traveled to Riverhead. After a quiet bus ride it was time to play, but the girls seemed a little fatigued. With Nicole Poleshuk out sick and Cameron Clark not available, we started the match down 1-0, defaulting fourth singles.

Keri Ann Mahoney, who had not lost a match all season, was not playing up to par. With her knee bothering her due to surgery last season, she toughed out the match but fell short to Kathryn Chenliowska at first singles. Madi Hallman and Emily Hyatt at second and third singles had close matches but also fell short in straight sets.

All three doubles matches went to third set tiebreakers. Evi Saunders teamed up with Caitlin Binder at first doubles. They had the best doubles match of the season, lasting almost two hours. The first set the Shelter Island duo won in a tiebreaker 7-4. The second set also went to a tiebreaker with Riverhead winning 7-5. That meant another tiebreaker to decide the match. This one went past the 7 points needed to win, since you need to win by 2 points. Evi and Caitlin fell a little short, losing 9-7, but it really was a well-fought, exciting match.

At second doubles Jenny Case and Brianna Kimmelmann lost the first set 6-2, won the second set 6-0 but fell two points short in the third set tiebreaker 7-5.

Third doubles was played by Taylor Sherman and Francesca Frasco. They also had a three set match and came out on top. They lost the first set 6-4, won the second set 7-5 and won the tiebreaker 9-7. This was a nice win as Francesca is a first year player and has not had a chance to play in a lot of matches since a number of schools do not have enough players.

So, unfortunately, we took our first league loss 6-1. But some times a loss is a good learning experience and I think that this was one of those times. The girls turned around and played great tennis the rest of the week.

On Wednesday, Shoreham Wading River traveled to Shelter Island. Again we had another match filled with third set tiebreakers. But this time we won four out of five of them.

Keri Ann won quickly at first singles, 6-1, 6-1. Madi had a nice match at second singles. She lost the first set 6-3, won the second set 6-2 and prevailed in the tiebreaker 8-6.

At third singles Emily also went to a third set tiebreaker but fell 7-2. Caitlin played fourth singles in this match and had a straight set victory.

Again all three doubles went to third set tiebreakers. But it was our day, winning all three. At first doubles Evi and Nicole won their tiebreaker 7-3. Jenny and Brianna also won the tiebreaker 7-3. Third doubles Francesca and Cameron won 7-2.

It was really nice to see the girls bounce back after Monday’s loss, winning all those tiebreakers. Good job! We won the match 6-1.

On Friday, Center Moriches was up. When we played them earlier in the season we squeaked out a 4-3 win. So I was looking forward to another close match. I was sadly disappointed when they showed up with only five girls. That meant only three singles matches and one doubles match. Shelter Island was leading 3-0 before we even served a ball.

The girls who played — Keri Ann, Madi and Emily at singles, and Evi and Nicole at doubles — all had their “A” game going, losing only 6 games between them. We walked away with a 7-0 win but learned more from the 6-1 loss to Riverhead.

I am sad to say that our last match is Friday at Southampton. It should be a good one.