Bobby Stabile, Giancarlo Volpe Win Division IV Doubles Title

For the third straight season, Bobby Stabile is a Division IV doubles champion for the Westhampton Beach boys tennis team.

The Westhampton Beach junior standout and his sophomore doubles partner Giancarlo Volpe earned the title by taking down Shoreham-Wading River brothers Ray and Kai Hidaka, 6-2, 6-4, on Monday at William Floyd High School. For Stabile, the win not only earned him back-to-back-to-back titles, it avenged a three-set singles loss to Ray Hidaka during the regular season.

“I got a little redemption today,” Stabile said. “Giancarlo was really good from the back and I was really good at the net. We were being clutch on deuce points, not giving up any games and finishing on our opponents pretty well. This feels great.”

The duo started the match down, 40-15, before rallying back to tie, taking the first point on a Stabile ace. After the Hidaka brothers stormed back to knot the first set at 2-2, Stabile threaded together a string of poaches to help make it 4-2 Westhampton Beach. Volpe then kept his doubles duo in it with a shot from the baseline into the far corner after they went down, 40-0, in the next game, and two Wildcats errors handed the Hurricanes the point. A Volpe ace lifted the Hurricanes to a first-set win.

“I was really proud of them,” head coach Matt Reed said. “There were tough conditions today for both teams with the wind, but you have to put that aside and play your best, and in the biggest moments they did that. A couple of those games that they won were 40-30 or deuce, and those were the big deciders of the match. They broke, and they were able to hold serve when they really needed to.”

The duo bounced out front, 3-0, in the second set, but the Shoreham-Wading River brothers maintained level heads and consistency on the way to tying things at 3-3. Westhampton Beach earned the next game on straight points, but the Wildcats put another away on 40-15 to once again even it up. Shoreham-Wading River errors handed the Hurricanes each of the next two points.

“Our main thing was communication and staying positive, keeping our mental game up,” Volpe said. “My hitting from the baseline and Bobby’s poaching work really well together.”

“I didn’t think I had the best forehands and backhands, but I was volleying really well, so that helped,” Stabile added. “And my partner was hitting some amazing shots.”

Stabile earned the Division IV title with Giancarlo’s older brother Sandro last season. The junior has now won championship crowns with three different partners who all have very different playing styles.

“That’s a testament to his skill level. It’s amazing,” Reed said. “He’s so poised and under control the whole time. It’s tough to play against someone who is so even-keeled that you can’t even tell if they’re up or down. He’s just so steady. He showed his leadership and experience out there.”

The doubles team first shut out Riverhead’s Sean Dougherty and Christian Seymour before taking down the Bonackers pair of East Hampton junior Jesse Cohen and Pierson junior Chris Pilarski, 6-1, 6-1. They then blanked William Floyd’s Francis Amalfitano and Jason Speruta before besting another brother duo in junior Cameron and sophomore Kiefer Mitchell out of East Hampton, 6-2, 6-3, to make it to the finals. Volpe said he was in awe watching what his partner can do.

“He’s amazing. He’s so much better than I’ll ever be,” the sophomore said of Stabile, laughing. “He’s just so good at everything he does. His footwork, his serve — I love watching him play. He’s so clean.”

And they weren’t the only Hurricanes to see tournament success. Freshmen Bryce Groth and Zach Berger made it to the quarterfinals, where they fell to Hidakas, 6-0, 6-2. They’d beaten Riverhead’s Chris Carver and Ben Dono, 6-3, 6-1, the round before.

“Both first-year freshmen at first doubles had tough shoes to fill,” Reed said. “They’re learning as we go, and every single match they’re listening and working hard. I was really proud of them.”

Westhampton Beach senior Ashton Lundborg and sophomore Manny Gomez also made it out of the first round with a 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 win over Center Moriches’s Drew Diperi and Stephen Buff before losing to the Hidakas. On the singles side, senior Gavin Vander Schaaf and junior Theo Grellet-Aumont both made it to the quarterfinals, with Vander Schaaf topping Ross’s Gabriel De La Maza, 8-5, in his consolation match to finish in sixth, while Grellet-Aumont took seventh.

Also making it out of the first round was Hampton Bays’s No. 1 singles player, senior Israel Pulla. Junior Dylan Foley, the Baymen pair of junior Kael Schoerlin and sophomore Christopher Clinton and Westhampton Beach’s doubles team of sophomores Sandro Imundi and Matt Moran also competed last weekend.

The top eight singles players and top six doubles teams earned a spot in the Suffolk County tournament, which begins Friday, May 19, at Smithtown East High School at 9 a.m.

“After this, I’m much more confident in my doubles abilities,” Volpe said. “I’m ready.”

Stabile took it a step further.

“I think we can make a deep run,” he said, “and even make it to the state tournament this year if we keep playing the way we’ve been playing.”