The surprise team didn’t have one final surprise left, but it sure took its best shot.
It was hard to know what to expect of the Mattituck High School girls tennis team entering this season. The Tuckers, under a new coach, had lost their entire singles lineup to graduation. Players, untested at the varsity level, had yet to prove themselves.
So, what do the Tuckers do? They go on to win the Suffolk County League VIII championship. READ
The top Tucker of them all is a genuine Tucker.
That would be Tucker Johansson, the first singles tennis player for the Mattituck Tuckers. A true Tucker in more ways than one, Johansson has made the considerable leap from playing third or fourth singles last year to the No. 1 singles slot this season. READ
On a day when Mattituck was missing half of its lineup players, Andrew Young came through with a win at third singles. (Credit: Garret Meade)
TUCKERS 5, COLONIALS 2
Having faced the daily challenges of life in Suffolk County League VII, the Mattituck High School boys tennis team found itself with a different sort of challenge on Friday. With half of their lineup players away on a senior class trip, the Tuckers were left shorthanded for their match against William Floyd. Because of that, they had to forfeit two doubles matches, putting them in a 2-0 hole before the first ball was served.
Mattituck coach Mike Huey was concerned, but in the end he was gratified by the way his players came through with a 5-2 triumph on their home courts.
Garrett Malave, Parker Tuthill, Andrew Young and Charles Hickox all won their singles matches in straight sets to assure the victory.
Malave, the team’s top player, brought his season record to 10-3 with a 6-0, 6-2 defeat of Ray Jiang as he put away nine winners to Jiang’s two in a match that lasted just under 46 minutes.
Malave breezed through the first set in 18 minutes before hitting a stumbling block, dropping the first two games of the second set. But Malave soon recovered, outscoring Jiang by 24-17 over the final six games.
Jiang’s brothers, Brandon and Kevin, also suffered losses in second and third singles, respectively. Tuthill improved his season record to 11-1 with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Brandon Jiang. Young beat Kevin Jiang, 6-1, 6-0.
Hickox, who has split time between fourth singles and first doubles, recorded a 6-3, 6-1 win over Chris Robertson.
The only three-setter of the day was in first doubles. Mattituck’s Ty Bugdin and Joe Macaluso, who had never played together before, earned a 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 result against Nick Janzer and Peter Rasmussen.
Since suffering a 7-0 loss to Mattituck (10-3, 7-3) on April 3, William Floyd (4-10, 3-7) has lost seven straight matches.
Friday’s win by the Tuckers was a testament to their strength at singles. They were missing Kevin Schwartz (fourth singles or first doubles), Tyler Rozhen (first doubles), Nick Rabkevich (second doubles), Joe Salice (third doubles) and Jake Nolan (third doubles), all of whom were away on the senior trip to Orlando, Fla. Huey said, pursuant to team rules, all five of them will sit out the team’s next match on Monday against Westhampton Beach.
DANIEL DE MATO PHOTO | Mike Insognia, a freshman, is part of a new-look Southold team that is in rebuilding mode.
COLONIALS 30, FIRST SETTLERS 3
The Southold boys bowling team has undergone a dramatic change, and that’s not just because some of the team’s more prominent bowlers are girls.
Having lost eight bowlers from last season’s team, including its five starters (ouch!), the First Settlers are in a definite rebuilding mode. With that knowledge, coach Sal Campo may have braced himself for the new season, which started this week with predictable results: one-sided losses to Southampton and William Floyd.
The First Settlers are raw. None of the nine team members, five of whom are girls, are seniors. For many of them, their first taste of varsity bowling has been rough.
Southold opened the season inauspiciously on Monday with a 32-1 loss to Southampton at Wildwood Lanes in Flanders. Southampton swept the three games handily, 729-516, 701-563, 744-607.
Bowling in another League IV match on the same lanes Tuesday, Southold was beaten, 30-3, by William Floyd.
It was an impressive season opener for William Floyd, whose coach, John Romero, said Wildwood Lanes is usually not kind to his team. That wasn’t the case on Tuesday, though, as the Colonials dominated in total wood, 2,985-1,892, and received 600-plus three-game series scores from three bowlers. Chris Trotta, who rolled a 246 in the first game, finished with a 657 series. Brandon Cahill, bowling in the leadoff spot, registered a 628 series with a high game of 229. Pierce Field was model of consistency, stringing together scores of 211, 214 and 218 for a 643 series. Freddy Kaucky added a 522 series.
Trotta and Field delivered 18 strikes each.
Southold was led by Emily Pressler, whose 190 in the third game wrapped up a 536 series. Pressler, a junior, had 10 strikes and 14 spares, both team-high figures.
The First Settlers also received a 398 series from Kaitlyn Kettenbeil and a 385 from Jessica Jerome.
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Greenport/Southold/Shelter Island players lined up to hear a pregame message from one of the game officials.
COLONIALS 0, CLIPPERS 0 (COLONIALS WON IN PENALTY STROKES, 2-1)
Despite dominating possession and field position, the goal that the William Floyd field hockey team was looking for continued to evade the Colonials. If shots didn’t go wide of the mark or weren’t blocked by the maze of bodies and sticks clogging the way in front of the Greenport/Southold/Shelter Island goal, they were saved by goalkeeper Brandi Gonzalez.
It went this way through 60 minutes of regulation time, and then another 10 minutes of overtime in which, by rule, the game was reduced to a seven-on-seven contest.
Finally, William Floyd found a way to put the ball in the cage, but not until the Suffolk County Division III game had gone to penalty strokes.
Greenport/Southold/Shelter Island’s plucky defense held off William Floyd for 70 scoreless minutes on Thursday before ultimately falling in penalty strokes in Mastic Beach. Christina Zurica, a senior defender, pushed her attempt to the low right side for the tie-breaking goal in William Floyd’s 2-1 triumph in penalty strokes.
“A rush came in to me,” Zurica said. “I wanted to dance, but I had to keep my composure and just walk away. I was very excited. Very excited.”
Zurica’s goal came in the fourth round of penalty strokes. The next two shooters, Madison Tabor of Greenport/Southold/Shelter Island and Caitlyn Palladino of William Floyd, saw their shots saved. Then, Greenport/Southold/Shelter Island’s captain, Sarah Tuthill, sent her shot wide to the right, ending it. The Colonials rejoiced.
The result was good tonic for William Floyd (1-3, 1-1 in Division III), which went winless and didn’t even score a goal two years ago before registering only two wins last season.
“They really needed this as a confidence-booster, knowing that they can win games,” said William Floyd coach Paula Malguarnera.
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | William Floyd’s Theresa Ardolino, left, and Greenport/Southold/Shelter Island’s Victoria Hilton crossing paths and sticks.
It was Greenport/Southold/Shelter Island (0-2, 0-2) that struck first in penalty strokes, with Wendy Peterson flipping in her shot to the left of goalkeeper Kerri Brownell for a 1-0 lead. But Theresa Ardolino evened things up for William Floyd on the next attempt.
Brownell, who did not need to make a save during regulation time or overtime, stopped two shots during penalty strokes, as did her counterpart, Gonzalez. Gonzalez sticked aside the first penalty stroke by Jaye Kudreyko, and later made an almost casual kick save on Palladino’s attempt in the fifth round.
The Clippers didn’t pick up their first win for their new coach, Rebecca Lillis, but just reaching penalty strokes might have felt like a victory of sorts. William Floyd put the visiting defense under intense pressure. Greenport/Southold/Shelter Island pushed the ball across the midfield line only a handful of times, and earned only one short corner to 18 for the Colonials.
“I was really nervous, but I knew my defense had my back, so it was all good,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez, who recorded six saves through regulation time and overtime, made one sparkling stop, but she also had some help from her friends. The defense was anchored by fullbacks Mairi Creedon and Daniele Freeman, with Tuthill playing defensively as a center midfielder.
The Clippers had only two substitutes available, which meant there was little rest for the weary.
“Seventy minutes, limited subs, a very young team,” Lillis said. “I’m very proud of them all.” She added: “They worked really hard today. They hung in there.”
One of William Floyd’s best scoring chances came early in the game when Courtney Murphy drove the ball dangerously across the face of the goalmouth without it being met by a William Floyd stick.
As time ticked off in the goalless game, the tension mounted.
“It gets frustrating,” said Zurica, one of William Floyd’s 12 seniors. “You just got to keep your head up, get a goal in. If we just had better passes, we wouldn’t need to have gone into [penalty strokes], but it’s fine with me.”
Gonzalez has some big shoes to fill, taking over the position that Alexis Reed played before moving on to play goal for Wilkes University (Penn.). But Gonzalez, who filled in for a couple of games last year while Reed was injured, seems at ease with the position and the situation. “I feel no pressure to follow after her,” Gonzalez said. “I’m just going to do my best.”
Building up from the defense first is Lillis’ plan. “We’re starting from scratch, and this is what we’re doing,” she said. “We’re going to build around Brandi. We have a very good goalkeeper.”
The Clippers are still awaiting their first goal of the season. They were shut out by Pierson/Bridgehampton, 6-0, in their season-opening game earlier in the week.
“We couldn’t get that final piece in, but we’re going to work on it,” Lillis said. “We have to connect our defense to our front line. Our front line is there, ready to score.”