Prep girls tennis: St. Stephen's edges Community School for 1A state berth
In the gloaming at Community School of Naples on Thursday, the Bradenton-St. Stephen’s girls tennis saw to it that the sun set on the Seahawks’ season.
Yet CSN coach Lilia Snape was thrilled to see it last late into April and going down to a tiebreaker with the lights on.
After the singles and doubles matches of the day ended in a tie, the Falcons’ No. 1 team won an exciting 10-5 victory in a tiebreaker late in the day in the Class 1A region finals, opening the door to the state finals for the Falcons and ending Community School’s surprising run in the postseason.
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Snape couldn’t help but give out kudos even after a difficult loss.
“I’m proud of our girls even getting this far,” she said. “But I guess the better team won today. It was close all day long. Our girls worked hard to even get as far as this. We knew it wouldn’t be easy here today no matter what happened.”
St. Stephen’s, which won the District A-9 title and then blasted through St. Petersburg-Northside Christian and Sarasota Out-Of-Door to reach the region finals, will play in the state finals in Altamonte Springs beginning Monday.
When the meet went to a tiebreaker, the Falcons' Laura Perazzado and Paradise Traub beat Lily Dounchis and Sophia Min 10-5 as the lights took full effect on the courts at CSN.
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In No. 1 singles, Dounchis beat Traub 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 as the Seahawks got off to a 3-1 lead in the match. But the Falcons won both doubles matches to necessitate the tiebreaker.
Min beat Perazzado in No. 2 singles, 6-2, 6-2. A.J. Massoll lost to Cassy Huang of St. Stephen’s 6-1, 4-6, 10-5 at No. 3. At No. 4, the Seahawks’ Kaitlin Quevedo beat Stella Rundoya 6-0, 6-1, and the Falcons’ Marie Petrova topped Brooke Jaffe 6-2, 6-4 at No. 5.
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At No. 1 doubles, Dounchis-Min fell to Traub-Perazzado 4-6, 6-2, 10-5 and at No. 2 Massoll-Jaffe lost to Huang-Rundoya 6-2, 6-3.
“We have a lot of positives that came out of today’s match,” Snape said. “We fought hard. We came further than any of us thought we would. I’m really proud that we got one step further than we did last year.”
St. Stephen’s coach Tumeka Harris was enthused that her young team made it to the state’s biggest high school tournament once Thursday’s four-hour match was finally over.
“As Falcons, we try and soar high,” Harris said. “This is a great opportunity for us, being in the state finals. In the tiebreaker, it was a matter of staying focused, aim for the other players’ feet and handle the service line. We have a lot of young players, some of whom are only sixth and seventh-graders and they’ve played for our team for the first time. These players are so dedicated to tennis, as much as they are in the classroom.”