60 Photos
East Hampton junior Caleigh Barletta readies for the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton junior Caleigh Barletta and Pierson senior Samantha Pillco celebrate a point. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton junior Caleigh Barletta and Pierson senior Samantha Pillco celebrate a point. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton sophomore Colleen McKee powers the ball back over the net. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton sophomore Hailey Rigby reaches for the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton sophomore Hailey Rigby serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton sophomore Hailey Rigby rallies. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton senior Lyla Wilson keeps her eyes on the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton senior Lyla Wilson races for a return. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Pierson sophomore Audrey Monaco makes contact with the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Pierson sophomore Audrey Monaco serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Pierson senior Samantha Pillco serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Pierson senior Samantha Pillco serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Pierson senior Samantha Pillco runs in for a return. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton sophomore Colleen McKee returns a serve. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Southampton's Katherine Blackmore keeps the point alive. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Southampton's Katherine Blackmore returns a serve. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Southampton's Katherine Blackmore serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Southampton's Katherine Blackmore sends the ball back over the net. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Southampton's Katherine Blackmore makes contact with the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Southampton's Katherine Blackmore reaches for a return. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Southampton senior London Bess returns the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Southampton senior London Bess serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Southampton senior London Bess reaches for a return. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Hampton Bays junior Iris Fernandes. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach sophomore Ana Way sends the ball back over the net. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach sophomore Ana Way connects with the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Ana-maria Bichinashvilli slams the ball back over the net. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Ana-maria Bichinashvilli serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Ana-maria Bichinashvilli returns a serve. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach eighth-grader Ava Borruso powers a serve back over the net. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach eighth-grader Ava Borruso serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach eighth-grader Ava Borruso rallies. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach eighth-grader Ava Borruso slices the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach eighth-grader Ava Borruso keeps her eyes on the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach eighth-grader Ava Borruso keeps the volley going. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Julia Stabile poaches. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Julia Stabile serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Julia Stabile waits for the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Julia Stabile reaches for a return. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Julia Stabile serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Julia Stabile and junior Matilda Buchen celebrate a point before switching sides. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Julia Stabile and junior Matilda Buchen are advancing to the Division IV finals. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Kylie Way serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Kylie Way lunges for the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach junior Matilda Buchen returns a serve. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach junior Matilda Buchen serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach junior Matilda Buchen keeps her eyes on the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach junior Matilda Buchen rallies. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach junior Matilda Buchen and senior Julia Stabile celebrate a point. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Melina Pinonzek steadies for a return. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Melina Pinonzek sends the ball back in transition. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Melina Pinonzek serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Melina Pinonzek reaches for the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Melina Pinonzek serves. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Taylor Lagattolla volleys at the net. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach senior Taylor Lagattolla poaches. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach freshman Zoe Grellet-Aumont races to the ball. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
East Hampton senior Lyla Wilson keeps the rally going. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
Westhampton Beach freshman Zoe Grellet-Aumont powers the ball back over the net. DESIRÉE KEEGAN
The Westhampton Beach tennis team doubles duo of Julia Stabile and Matilda Buchen has once again breezed through the Division IV doubles bracket to make it back to the final and earn a spot in the Suffolk County tournament.
“I’m excited to see how it goes,” said Stabile, a senior. “It’s fun being able to play with your best friend every day. We communicate well, and have great chemistry on the courts, but it’s bittersweet. It’s my last year here, so I’m just taking it all in, match by match, and enjoying it.”
Stabile and Buchen, a junior, took out Mattituck’s Julia Dacharu and Riley Corrigan, 6-0, 6-0, before blanking East Hampton sophomores Colleen McKee and Hailey Rigby, 6-0, 6-0.
Southold’s Nyla Olsen and Reagan Trehome took the first set from the All-State returners all tournament, falling, 6-0, 6-1, and the next to do so were their own teammates, seniors Taylor Lagattolla and Ana-maria Bichinashvili, who fell, 6-1, 6-1, in the semifinals. Stabile and Buchen faced William Floyd’s Lydia Van Cott and Gianna Martin in the finals Tuesday afternoon, but results were not available by press time.
“They’re good players. It’ll be a good match,” Buchen said after the semifinal win. “It’s such a good feeling making it back to this point. It’s kind of frustrating to face your own team, but we treat them like friends off the court and opponents on the court.”
Head coach Matt Reed said he’s thrilled to see the improvements his pair has made in just the last year alone.
“Their net play has taken a huge step up,” he said. “They were always consistent at the baseline, and now they’re poaching a lot and being a lot more aggressive and shortening up the points. They’re making every aspect of their game a strength. They’re staples of consistency, they’re becoming really well-rounded players, and they get better with each match that they play.”
But the coach added he’s been happy with the way all of his girls have been playing. Last year, the Hurricanes sent Stabile and Buchen and Melina Pinonzek to the individual tournament. This year, three doubles teams and two singles players earned a spot, making for a total of eight girls qualifying, the most from any school in the tournament. Pinonzek knocked out William Floyd’s Corrine Neidig with a 6-1, 6-1 win before dropping a close match to teammate Zoe Grellet-Aumont, who won, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6). The freshman took down Southold’s Olivia Misiukiewicz before being outdone by Ross’s Olivia Caruso in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-2. Grellet-Aumont is competing for seventh place in the division on Tuesday. Westhampton Beach’s Ava Borruso also made it to the quarterfinals. The eighth-grader shut down Ross’s Daniella De la Vega and Hampton Bays junior Iris Fernandes, 6-0, 6-0, before a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 loss to William Floyd’s Anabel Van Cott.
“That first match today was really, really long,” Reed said Monday afternoon. “Every single game and point was intense. They’re both very good from the baseline.”
While Grellet-Aumont lost her outbracket match to Riverhead’s Christina Pagnozzi, 6-0, 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), Borruso was able to best Shoreham-Wading River’s Nina Nelson, 6-2, 6-3, to make it to the county tournament. She played Pagnozzi for fifth or sixth place Tuesday afternoon.
“It was big for her, especially being so young,” Reed said of Borruso beating Nelson. “She was definitely tired at the end, but she closed it out. She has a really bright future.”
Also earning a spot in the county tournament were Lagattolla and Bichinashvili, who faced William Floyd’s Drew Wiegand and Olivia Phillips in the consolation finals Tuesday, and the Westhampton Beach sister pairing of Kylie and Ana Way. Kylie, a senior, and Ana, a sophomore, topped William Floyd’s Alexa LaValle and Christina Dyakiv, 6-3, 6-3, and the Colonials’ Nadia Da Gama Paes and Tatiana Sanchez, 6-0, 6-4, to make it to the quarterfinals, where they lost to Lagattolla and Bichinashvili, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-2). Reed said the Way sisters did not know the top six doubles teams earn All-County status, but informed them after they’d dropped their first set to Southold’s Olsen and Trehome. They stormed back to win, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.
“It’s not easy competing against and losing to your teammates, but they came back really strong in the second and third sets,” the coach said. “It’s good to see so many getting far into these tournaments, as we should be.”
Also competing in the doubles bracket was Pierson senior Samantha Pillco and East Hampton junior Caleigh Barletta, who beat Riverhead’s Victoria Arant and Olivia Esposito, 6-0, 6-1, and Shoreham-Wading River’s Chloe Jaeger and Emily Martinez, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, to make it to the quarterfinals, where William Floyd’s pair of Wiegand and Phillips won, 6-4, 6-1. In the outbracket, the pair fell to Shoreham-Wading River’s Hannah Rafuse and Mia Wentz, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, who the Way sisters faced Tuesday for fifth or sixth place.
East Hampton senior Lyla Wilson, Pierson sophomore Audrey Monaco and Southampton’s Katherine Blackmore and London Bess also competed in the singles draw, along with Hampton Bays’s doubles teams of Natalie Moranchal and Sarah Ren and Charlotte Summar and Melody Arabejo. The Hurricanes well send eight while the Colonials will send six of Division IV’s best to the Suffolk County tournament, which begins Thursday, October 12, at Smithtown East High School at 11 a.m.
“There’s going to be a lot of black and green at Smithtown East,” Reed said. “We’re going to be representing, and I’m very excited to see what they can do.”
