Clippers start winning games; sets are next
RED DEVILS 7, CLIPPERS 0
The Southold/Greenport high school girls tennis players wear red uniforms, but in terms of their years playing the sport, many of the Clippers are green.
That being the case, the young Clippers have to measure their progress incrementally. Through their first five team matches this season the Clippers have not only gone winless, but they have lost all 90 sets they have played. Coach Howie Geismar has noticed a positive sign recently, though. Instead of losing sets by 6-0, the Clippers are now starting to win some games.
That was seen Monday in the Clippers’ 7-0 loss to Center Moriches (3-2 over all and in Suffolk County League VIII). In the six matches that were played (the shorthanded Clippers forfeit fourth singles), Southold/Greenport managed to take 15 games on its home courts at Jean W. Cochran Park and Robert W. Tasker Memorial Park in Peconic. They are small steps, but steps forward, nonetheless.
Five of those 15 games were won by the first doubles team of Sarah Janazzo and Willow Wilcenski. The two sophomores lost to Gabrielle Vallient and Kaitlyn Vetack, 6-3, 6-2.
Two other Southold/Greenport sophomores, Daniella Menjivar and Daisy Rymer, were defeated by two seniors, Bianca Gualtieri and Alex Kazenecki, 6-0, 6-4, at second doubles.
The third doubles match was an all-sophomore affair, with Kayla Hujber and Brittany Romonoff winning, 6-0, 6-3, over Gracie Bruer and Althea Mignone.
The three singles matches that were played were one-sided deals. Ericka Koscinski, an up-and-coming sophomore, had 18 service aces and put away 23 winners in her 6-1, 6-1 defeat of her first singles opponent, junior Angie Bucci. The match was concluded in 37 minutes.
Clippers freshman Rebecca Dickerson, playing on her 14th birthday, dropped a 6-1, 6-0 loss to senior Caitlyn Burridge at second singles. After the match, Dickerson was surprised with cupcakes that were brought by Center Moriches and serenaded with a singing of “Happy Birthday” by both teams.
At third singles, Lauryn Burridge, who is Caitlyn’s twin sister, beat junior Julia Daddona, 6-0, 6-0.
