Girls Varsity Tennis Team Headed to State Championships at USTA National Tennis Center

The Scarsdale Girls Varsity A Tennis Team is headed to the USTA National Tennis Center in Queens on Friday to play in the New York State finals. This is the first time in the history of Scarsdale tennis that the entire team will compete in the state championship and the first year that the NYSPHAA has hosted team championships. With so many talented players on the Scarsdale team, they benefitted from their depth, hosting strong competitors on all seven courts.

It’s been an exhilarating run for the team who travelled by Coach bus to Binghamton for an overnight last week. Many of the girls had not stayed in a hotel for two years and the team, along with their manager Zach Sanders and Coach Jennifer Roane, bonded during the trip. No parents or extra chaperones were permitted and the girls had to play wearing masks.

Playing inside on unfamiliar courts on October 26, the girls played the regional championships at the Binghamton Tennis Center where they swept their opponents from Ithaca – winning all seven courts. Their opponents barely won a game. The three singles teams and four doubles teams dominated over their upstate opponents and went on to become one of the top four teams in the state for the large school league.

Here were their remarkable scores from the regionals in Binghamton:

-First Singles: Natalie Hu defeated Talia Shaw 6-1,6-0
-Second Singles: Giana Marks defeated Paula Carrillo 6-0,6-0
-Third Singles: Maya Cukierman defeated Elise Park 6-0,6-0
-First Doubles: Laura Mendes/ Campbell Alin defeated Caroline Whelan/Aria Petrella 6-0,6-0
-Second Doubles: Maya Vora/ Yelena Sahakyan defeated Marina Okada/ Fiona Glenn 6-0,6-0
-Third Doubles: Madison Lee/Daphane Luttrell defeated Lily Wang/Julia Blakeslee 6-0,6-1
-Fourth Doubles: Kay Cottrell/Natasha Pereira defeated Liala Cryer/Luna King 6-0,6-2.

Tennis Team Following Victory in Binghamton

Next up, the team will go to the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center on Friday November 5 where they will play another upstate team, Brighton High School, from Rochester in the semi-final at 11 am. If they succeed, they will play in the finals at 4:30 pm against the winner of an earlier match of Syosset vs. Bethlehem (a suburb of Albany). The players must win two full sets to claim victory, i.e. they will not play a tie breaker in lieu of a third set.

No parents or spectators will be permitted inside the facility. However all matches will be livestreamed from the court. Each of the players needed to have proof of vaccination and they will need to play wearing masks, adding another challenge to the competition.

On Wednesday we caught up with the team and Coach Roane who had scheduled a practice match against the team from Byram Hills, who are the Section 1 champions in the small school draw. Awaiting their opponents the girls were all smiles as they did warm up exercises to music on the courts.

Coach Roane explained that this year the team included eight players who had moved up from the Varsity B team along with two freshman, Giana Marks and Kay Cottrell. Playing second singles Marks has had an amazing first high school season.

We asked team captain and first singles star Natalie Hu how the team maintains their fighting spirit. She said, “We pump each other up and have a team huddle before each match. We all want to win badly!... and we bring our team mascot, Ace, to every match.”

Coach Roane tells the girls to be positive, focus on one point at a time, if they make a mistake to let it go, communicate with your partner and most of all, to have fun!

From the scene at the high school courts on Wednesday, the girls were having fun and were looking forward to riding the wave of enthusiasm to Queens on Friday.