With makeshift lineup, Clippers fall to Floyd, 5-2

On a day when the Southold/Greenport Clippers’ boys tennis team lost a bunch of close matches in a 5-2 loss at William Floyd High School on Tuesday afternoon, there were some bright spots for Coach Andrew Sadowski’s team.

In first singles, Southold/Greenport’s Anthony Losquadro came from behind to win a thrilling 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 match over his opponent. Sadowski called it “a fabulous back-and-forth match.”

“At the end of the first set, Anthony and I had a conversation,” said Sadowski, whose team dropped to 1-2 in Suffolk County League VIII. “He told me what his problem was … He said he needed to play with more patience. He calmed down after that and really got into a good rhythm.”

The Clippers’ first doubles team of Kevin Parma and K.J. Metz rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

“Kevin and K.J. have such a good team chemistry,” Sadowski said. “They really read each other so well. They’re on a good roll right now.”

While the other three Southold/Greenport singles players — Desmond Tetrault in second singles, Zachary Sacher in third singles and Jake O’Donnell in fourth singles — lost, Sadowski said those matches were closer than they appeared.

The Clippers’ Tim Winters and Elliott Shine lost, 7-5, 6-3, in a second-doubles match that had a lot of 40-40 scores. “When we’re at deuce,” Sadowski said, “the kids have to learn how to get that next point.”

Sadowski also talked about how his team has had a number of players out of the lineup because of trips and injuries. He said that with a full lineup, the match against William Floyd (2-0) could have gone either way.

“William Floyd is a very good team,” he said. “So many of these matches could have gone the other way.”