Southold/Greenport tennis gamers depend on enjoyable and spirit to win

The key to a profitable doubles partnership in tennis is chemistry. You’ve bought to know the place your accomplice is on the court docket, the place they may wind up, and generally who’s in a greater place to take a specific shot.

For a pair of Southold/Greenport athletes, that was the case final Friday.

Senior Olivia Zehil and junior Brooke Torkelson teamed as much as assist the Settlers safe their first win of the season, a 5-2 victory over host Mattituck on Friday, Sept. 5. They defeated Brooke Walling and Emma Celic 6-2, 6-3.

“When one of us messes up, we don’t get mad about it or anything,” Torkelson mentioned. “We laugh it off, make a joke, be loose and not tense. Then we just play like it’s for fun. We just play lighter. We’ve been friends for so long, it’s for fun.”

They have been critical sufficient within the Suffolk County League IV match.

“When we found out that we were doubles partners, we had it automatically, because we know where we were going to be on the court,” Zehil mentioned. “Brooke is better at longer strokes. I’m better at the net. If I’m serving, we’ll call a switch. Then I’m at the net, and Brooke is doing the long serves.”

Zehil and Torkelson weren’t the one Settlers who did nicely.

In first singles, Southold senior Connie Benson dropped her first set towards Fiona Dunn, 1-6, however rebounded within the subsequent two, 6-2, 6-4, for the win.

“It was definitely really close,” Benson mentioned. “It was getting really tiring at the end. Just finding that inner strength.”

Southold head coach Mike Carver additionally gave Benson some ideas.

‘You got great strokes. You’re hesitating,” Carver mentioned he advised Benson. “Just don’t be afraid of your strokes.”

Carver seen a change. “It was like a switch went on,” he mentioned. “She was pretty much in command.”

The Settlers dropped their first two matches of the season, dropping to a pair of the county’s greatest colleges — William Floyd and Westhampton.

“It’s good to play against someone who’s better than you,” Benson mentioned. “It teaches you what you need to work on, and you can learn from them, too. That was helpful.”

In the opposite singles matches, Mattituck sophomore Anna Carter downed Jane Glasser, 6-3, 6-2, within the second-seeded match, and Southold’s Kate Warlan beat Sadie Corrigan, 6-4, 6-2, at No. 3.

“Anna Carter did a great job,” Mattituck head coach Cory Dolson mentioned. “She’s been playing really well. It’s her first win. But she’s been playing really competitive tennis against some really good competition.”

Southold gained three of the 4 doubles. In the second-seeded match, Liz Estrada and Juliette Ugunda defeated Madison Anderson and Julianna Witczak, 6-2, 6-3. Peyton Koke and Lila Dailey bested Jill Fogarty and Grace Feretti within the third seed, 6-2, 6-3. The Mattituck duo of Sasha Oliva-Reyes and Nathalie Perez got here again to down Corinna Carbajal and Lindsey Zaffiro, 2-6, 6-3, 10-5, at No. 4.

It was a whirlwind week. School began on Tuesday, Sept. 2 and by Friday, Sept. 3, each groups had competed in three matches.

“It’s definitely been hard just to manage everything, but I think we’ve definitely worked through it,” Zehil mentioned.

On Saturday, the Settlers performed their fourth match of the season, defeating Brentwood, 7-0, night their league and general document at 2-2.

By the time they end towards Center Moriches at dwelling on Friday, Sept. 12, the Settlers can have performed eight matches.

“Half our games are done by next week,” Carver mentioned. “It’s a loaded schedule. It always is a pretty fast-paced schedule, because they have to be done for the tournament. They had us move up games.”

The particular person county match commences on Oct. 11, adopted by the group competitors on Oct. 14.

Both groups have postseason hopes.

“We are very nice, level team,” Carver mentioned. “We’re solid from top to bottom. It’s nice. We don’t have a lot of drop off.”

The Tuckers have dropped their first three matches. “It’s been a little bit of a rough start for us,” Dolson mentioned. “But I’ve got a good group of girls. They’re fun, they’re energetic, they try hard. We’ve got a lot of inexperience in our varsity lineup, so I don’t want to say this start was expected. The level that we’re at, we’re just trying to get a little bit better every day. We want to be a lot better come conference tournament time than we are now.”