Sports

Girls Tennis: Falisi’s three-set win gives Blue Waves edge over Clippers

Riverhead captain Taylor Marelli put away 12 winners in her 6-1, 6-0 win over Southold/Greenport's Willow Wilcenski. (Credit: Garret Meade)
Riverhead captain Taylor Marelli put away 12 winners in her 6-1, 6-0 win over Southold/Greenport’s Willow Wilcenski. (Credit: Garret Meade)

There has been a lot of smiling and laughing by the players on the Southold/Greenport and Riverhead high school girls tennis teams this season. It’s just the wins that have been lacking, but that hasn’t kept either team from enjoying itself.

As fate would have it, the schedule maker had the two bottom teams in Suffolk County League VIII playing against each other on Friday, which marked the end of their 24-day league season. Kelly Falisi’s three-set victory at third singles put the Blue Waves over the top, 4-3, in the match at Riverhead High School.

The Blue Waves finished the season with a 2-8 record, overall and in the league. Both of their wins came against the winless Clippers (0-10, 0-10).

Unlike their 6-1 win over the Clippers on Sept. 11, the Blue Waves prevailed on Friday by virtue of Falisi’s 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 triumph over fellow junior Daisy Rymer.

Riverhead’s captain, Taylor Marelli, put away 12 winners in her 6-1, 6-0 win over Willow Wilcenski at first singles. Marelli outpointed Wilcenski, 50-22.

Riverhead’ top two doubles teams came through with wins. The first doubles pairing of Natalie Cavaliere and Kathleen Gregory beat Grace Bruer and Althea Mignone, 6-1, 6-0. At second doubles, Kristen Campanelli, Riverhead’s sole senior, teamed up with Natalia Sisalima to down Paige Messana and Julia Schade, 6-1, 6-3.

Singles players Sarah Janazzo and Emma Alvarez brought the Clippers wins. Janazzo beat Ariana Breest, 6-1, 6-1, and Alvarez prevailed over Norma Guerra, 7-5, 6-2.

The last match to be completed might have been the most entertaining. In a third doubles contest between two well-matched teams, the Clippers’ Ally Boyle and Casie Vaccariello split the first two sets against Sarah Zawada and Sarah Zurawski. After Boyle and Vaccariello took the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-5, Zawada and Zurawski recovered to win the second set, 6-4. But it was the two Clippers who ended up on top, 11-9, in a tiebreaker played in lieu of a full third set because of fading daylight.

The match was the closest the Clippers have come to winning this season. They have been shut out seven times and outscored, 64-6, in team points.

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