Girls tennis: Settlers senior takes over top singles spot

At this juncture last year, Reagan Treharne was settling in with her first doubles partner, senior Nyla Olsen, on the Southold/Greenport High School girls tennis team.

These days, she’s going it alone, taking on the difficult task of facing some of the best tennis players in Suffolk County as the Settlers’ top singles seed.

Treharne has embraced the challenge.

“I’m having a lot of fun playing singles,” the senior said after dropping a 6-0, 6-1 decision to Kings Park top seed Sarah Zaniel at Southold on Monday. “It’s definitely a struggle, but it’s a great position to be in to better my skills against some of the best people in the county. I’m up for that challenge.”

The Settlers (0-3), who compete in League IV, lost to the League I Kings Park Kingsmen (3-0), 7-0, in a non-league encounter.

Despite her result, Treharne was upbeat about her performance.

“I think I played very well,” she said. “I’m put in a very tough position at number one, but I just really want to try my best and better myself by playing better players. That’s definitely what happened today. But it was great practice out there, and for future games.”

Asked what worked for her, Treharne replied, “I was really aiming on just returning the other person’s hits. She had a really great forehand and backhand. I was just staying steady, making sure that it got back over. It worked out on a lot of points, even if the score didn’t really show that. I feel like I improved my serves. I was up against such a competitive player that I felt like I needed to put my best foot forward.”

Treharne was just as effusive talking about her teammates.

“It’s going good so far,” she said. “We lost a lot of seniors from last year, and there’s so many first-year people on this team, but they’re doing a great job being on the court for the very first time. It’s really fun to have a lot of my friends join. I love watching them enjoy the sport and being able to share that experience with them.”

Her goals are equally simple and straight forward.

“I’m trying to win some games,” Treharne said. “I think that might be a little bit hard, but we have a couple matches coming up that I’ve circled in hopes of winning those, and possibly make it into the [Suffolk County] tournament.”

Southold coach Mike Carver had no qualms about naming Treharne his top singles player.

“First singles is tough, and she knew that going in,” he said. “Every team’s got a good first singles. You’re going to be facing a good tennis player. Reagan’s a very strong competitor, and she’s quick on the court. She’ll be fine. She’s happy to be there. She earned it.”

Treharne has become a team leader with her fellow seniors.

“We’ve been here for four years. We’ve taken a leadership role and motivated other players,” she said.

A longtime tennis fan, Treharne attended her first U.S. Open tournament in Queens last month, watching Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton compete.

“It was a fun experience for me, since I’ve played tennis for so long,” she said. “I got to see the skills in action. I felt like that was a learning thing for me as well, to see what they were doing on the big stage and take it to my own game.”

In singles action, Kings Park No. 2 Jillian McConville defeated Judy Anderson, 6-2, 6-2, and Sophia Keaton downed Connie Benson in the third spot, 0-6, 6-3, 10-3 (tiebreaker).

“Judy shed a little bit of wild hitting,” Carver said. “She’s finally got her strokes today. I think she’s going to turn the corner the next game or so.”

In doubles, Emma Wazniak and Ashley Frederickson bested Liz Estrada and Olivia Zehic, 6-2, 6-3, in the battle of first seeds; Gabby Koeniecki and Haily Herfel downed Lindsay Zaffino and Emily Kopala, 6-0, 6-2, in the second spot; Mackenzie Clark and Madison Ferrazzi defeated Ashley Bifulco and Sarah Harvey at number three, 6-2, 6-1; and Shay Gilmartin and Lauren Ayres defeated Maria Gavalas and Hailey Sorrell at fourth seed, 6-0, 6-1.