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Girls Tennis: Harborfields ousts Tuckers in Round of 16

Mattituck coach Mike Huey and his Tuckers faced a League I team, Harborfields, in the Suffolk County Team Tournament Round of 16 on Tuesday. (Credit: Bob Liepa)

Harborfields High School has six tennis courts. A team match consists of seven individual matches.

Knowing that one of the matches would have to be held off until later in the afternoon, when a court became available, the Harborfields coach, Bob Davis, asked his fourth singles player, Kiley Roche, if she wouldn’t mind waiting a bit to play her match. The reason he asked Roche is because he knew the sophomore had the mental toughness to deal with what could be the decisive match in her team’s Suffolk County Team Tournament Round of 16 contest against Mattituck on Tuesday.

Davis had said well beforehand that he expected a well-played, tight contest against the Tuckers, and it was.

Harborfields held a 3-2 lead in team points with the second and fourth singles matches still be completed. It was Roche who came through with the match-clinching point in a 4-3 Harborfields victory. She made quick work of sophomore Drew Hahn, 6-1, 6-0.

Seventh-seeded Harborfields (9-4), a League I team, had already booked itself a quarterfinal against either No. 2 Commack or No. 15 Bay Shore on Wednesday by the time Mattituck sophomore Emily Mowdy concluded her marathon triumph at second singles. She pulled out a 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 result against Remi Berlent, a hard-hitting eighth grader who hits the ball with a lot of torque, in 2 hours 5 minutes, the longest match of the day.

Lauren Hutton brought Harborfields a 6-2, 6-2 win over Julie Krudop at third singles.

Two of the three doubles matches went Harborfields’ way. The second doubles team of Sarah Katz and Stephanie Rossi defeated Ava Gaines and Jacey Lengyel, 6-2, 6-3. In third doubles, Marisa Singer and Hannah Staib were 6-2, 6-4 winners over Kim Scheer and Alex Talbot.

No. 10 Mattituck (10-4), a League VII team, took first singles, thanks to the efforts of its sophomore standout, Liz Dwyer. Dwyer put away 24 winners in her 6-4, 6-2 win over Taryn Roche, who is Kiley’s sister.

Mattituck’s first doubles team of Anna Kowalski and Courtney Penny registered a 6-4, 6-4 win over Gabby Farino and Caroline Johnson.

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Photo: Mattituck coach Mike Huey and his Tuckers faced a League I team, Harborfields, in the Suffolk County Team Tournament Round of 16 on Tuesday. (Credit: Bob Liepa)