Hurricanes Kaplan, Insalaco, Stabile Win Division IV Boys Tennis Titles

Third time’s the charm for Westhampton Beach senior Josh Kaplan.

After making it to the Division IV tennis tournament finals three straight seasons, the No. 1 singles star pulled out a championship title-earning victory Monday — a 6-2, 6-0 win over East Hampton sophomore Max Astilean. Kaplan, who advances along with the top eight singles players in Division IV to the Suffolk County championship tournament that begins this Thursday, June 10, at Smithtown East High School, said the win was certainly worth the wait.

“I went through the rounds for this one,” he said, smiling. “I’m on the other side of it this time, which feels good.”

After starting the match down 1-0, the do-it-all senior swiftly bounced back to tie things, and then take the advantage, but Astilean re-knotted the set at 2-all before Kaplan pulled away.

“We both came out pretty strong in the beginning — he was giving me some trouble — so I figured I’d keep the ball in, started getting more comfortable serving, backing up to return and neutralized the ball,” Kaplan said. “He broke me, I broke back, and after that serves were everything, especially for me.”

He said he was told his opponent had a strong forehand, but wanted to see for himself. He quickly learned he was going to have to adapt to win the title.

“He’s got a big, flat forehand when he wants it, and getting it back is hard, so hitting to his backhand helped,” Kaplan said. “I learned not to hit my second serve to his forehand unless I felt like I could come through with the point.”

The match was closer than the score shows, with Astilean coming up on the short end of multiple long rallies.

“When it came down to it Josh was the steadier player,” Westhampton Beach head coach John Czartosieski said. “He was able to keep the ball in longer, and that forced Max to make errors.”

East Hampton head coach Kevin McConville tipped his cap to Kaplan.

“Josh is so good. He’s really solid, consistent. He can play a set and only make four or five errors — that is a difference-maker in tennis,” the coach said. “But I think Max played great. We had a very specific game plan about when to attack and he did it.”

Hurricanes teammates Andre Insalaco and Bobby Stabile also pulled out a championship-winning 6-0, 6-0 blanking of Westhampton Beach teammates Anthony Agudelo and Sandro Volpe.

“We had a strategy and we stuck to it,” said Insalaco, a junior. “We were playing aggressive and going for some bigger shots because we knew we could hit them, and it paid off.”

Stabile said it was nice to see all aspects of his No. 1-seeded doubles team’s game help pull out the victory, from poaching to working the volleys to keeping the serves inbounds.

“Hard work pays off. It’s great to come out on top,” the sophomore said. “It felt kind of weird at first, it’s different going against teammates, but you’ve got to look past that — you have to play them like they’re any other opponent, and we got the job done.”

While Czartosieski noted Insalaco and Stabile have been dominant all season — not losing a match yet — while raising their tennis IQ along the way, he was quick to point to his No. 3 team for not only their improvement but their big second-round upset — 6-2, 5-7, 6-0 — of No. 2-seeded Matthew McGovern and Brian Chen of East Hampton.

“They went in with clear heads. They weren’t even thinking about winning,” the coach said. “They just wanted to play to the best of their abilities, and they were loose — there were no nerves and they played amazing.”

“You try as a coach to pick up the parts of their game that they need help with and need to work on, and they embraced that and they continued to improve and improve and improve,” Czartosieski added. “When you upset the No. 2 seed you become the No. 2 seed, and they backed it up with win after win and I couldn’t be prouder.”

East Hampton freshman Nick Cooper, competing in the tournament for the first time, placed third in the singles draw with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Shoreham-Wading River’s No. 3 seed, Ray Hidaka.

“I’ve played him in tournaments before, and he’s gotten really good,” Cooper said. “I was really surprised and glad that I won, but he’s a formidable opponent.”

Because Hidaka has a weaker backhand the freshman made sure to place the ball there as much as possible.

“I kept trying to bring him to the net, and he was trying to do the same thing to me, so it was a big push rally the whole time,” Cooper said. “It went really well. I think I played really well this tournament.”

Others who finished in the top eight and earned a berth in the county individual tournament include Hampton Bays senior Jeremy Carcamo and junior Noah Sanabria, and Westhampton Beach sophomore Gavin Vander Schaaf.

Southampton’s doubles duo of Tyler Moore, a senior, and Luke Sacconaghi, a junior, who fell to Agudelo and Volpe 6-2, 7-5 in the semifinals, topped East Hampton senior R.J. Jones and Pierson junior Jackson LaRose 6-4, 7-5 to finish third. Jones and LaRose dropped their semifinal match, 6-1, 6-1 to Insalaco and Stabile.

“These guys have gotten so much better and I couldn’t be happier,” McConville said of his Bonackers. “I did not foresee this at all because we had a rough start — the playing level was low — but the kids really bought into what we were doing.”

Insalaco and Stabile said they think they have a shot at going all the way in the county tournament. The pair advances with the top four doubles teams to compete at Smithtown East beginning this Friday, June 11.

“We’ve already played Ward Melville and Half Hollow Hills East, and we know they boast two of the top teams, so we like our chances,” Insalaco said. “We’re comfortable with each other and we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We haven’t lost a match yet, and we don’t plan on losing now.”