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It’s usually not hard to focus when a championship is on the line. More common challenges include battling nerves or refusing to be intimidated by an opponent.
But for the Westhampton Beach doubles teams of Greg Kandell and Eric Antunovich and Christian LaDu and Mike Hammond, getting down to business and getting their game faces on for the Division IV boys tennis doubles title at Shoreham/Wading River High School on Monday took a little while. After the teammates were done sharing jokes and laughs and, well, acting like teammates, they settled in and faced each other as what they were for that day—opponents.
Kandell and Antunovich prevailed, winning their first division title by beating LaDu and Hammond 6-2, 6-3. Kandell and Antunovich were runners-up against teammates Dylan Jurow—who is a singles player this year—and Kenny Ballato, who graduated.
“It was a little bit tough at first,” Kandell said. “But once we got into it, it was very competitive. I think it’s an advantage for all of us that we know each others’ games.”
“It was kind of weird playing our own team,” Antunovich said. “But it’s good playing with Greg. He’s a good doubles player and we work well together.”
Westhampton Beach head coach John Czartosieski said he expected the top-seeded team of Antunovich and Kandell to prevail, but hoped for a slightly closer match. Still, he said he’s happy to be taking two doubles teams to the Section XI (Suffolk County) tournament, which will take place at Suffolk County Community College in Selden on Saturday and Monday.
“It’s more than you could ask for,” he said. “I think Greg and Eric just kind of dominated the whole match with the power and placement they’ve been using all season.”
Kandell and Antunovich breezed to the final with straight-sets wins as did LaDu and Hammond, who were seeded third. Along the way, LaDu and Hammond beat the second-seeded team of Jona Sanabria and Dylan Sanicola from East Hampton, winning 6-1, 6-3.
Sanabria and Sanicola finished third in the tournament after beating Longwood’s fifth-seeded team of Kevin Schneider and Matt Benjamin 6-0, 6-3. Sanabria and Sanicola won the first seven points of the match to take control.
“I think that kind of discouraged them,” East Hampton head coach Claude Beudert said, referring to Schneider and Benjamin.
East Hampton had two other doubles teams in the draw, with the duo of David Rubenstein and Dan Horwith advancing to the second round with a 6-4, 6-0 win before losing in three sets to Schneider and Benjamin, dropping the first set 6-4, winning the second set 6-3 and losing the third 6-2. Bonackers Luke Sweetman and Joel Metzger lost 6-3, 6-4 in the first round to Dan Elitharp and Chris Anderson of Eastport South Manor.
The Westhampton Beach doubles team of J.D. Sipala and Kevin Cino lost 6-4, 7-6 (7-1) to seventh-seeded Mike Biggs and Nick Prisco of ESM in the first round. Southampton’s top doubles team of Matt Miller and Fred Havemeyer—seeded sixth—made it to the quarterfinals before losing 6-2, 6-1 to LaDu and Hammond. Along the way, they won a three-set match in the second round after a first-round bye.
“They played their hearts out and grew tremendously as a doubles team,” Southampton head coach Richard “Juni” Wingfield said of Miller and Havemeyer.
League VI Matches
Before beginning the division tournament, Westhampton Beach, Southampton and East Hampton played League VI matches. The Hurricanes beat Rocky Point 7-0 on May 6 to improve to 9-0 on the season, 11-2 overall. They were scheduled to wrap up the league season against Ross this past Tuesday, where a win would cap off a fifth-straight undefeated league championship season.
East Hampton fell to 3-7 on the season with a 5-2 loss at Ross on May 6 and a 4-3 loss at home against Southampton a day earlier. The Bonackers were without Zack Newburger, one of their best singles players, in both matches due to illness. He also missed out on the division tournament. East Hampton also had to play against Southampton without Sanabria.
The Bonackers will play Longwood on Wednesday, May 13, for a chance to compete in the Suffolk County team tournament.
Southampton beat Longwood 5-2 at home on May 6 to finish the league season with a 6-4 record, 8-5 overall which was good enough for third place. Ross was second with an 8-1 record, 9-2 overall prior to its match against the Hurricanes.
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