Girls Tennis: Riverhead seventh-grader faces challenges of first singles

Meet Christina Pagnozzi. She is 12 years old. She is a seventh-grader. She is in her first season on the Riverhead girls tennis team. She is the youngest player on the team.

And, oh yeah, she plays first singles.

It isn’t unheard of for seventh-graders to play first singles, it just isn’t common. It does say a lot about Pagnozzi, though.

“She’s amazing,” said senior captain Kristy Lessard.

Pagnozzi is literally following in the footsteps of her older sister, Isabella, who played first singles for Riverhead last year and now swings a racket for Suffolk County Community College.

With Isabella Pagnozzi’s graduation, Riverhead coach Vic Guadagnino said, the Blue Waves lost a “phenomenal talent.” But he had seen Christina Pagnozzi hit the ball when she was a fifth-grader.

“We knew all about her,” he said. “We saw this coming.”

As was to be expected, Christina Pagnozzi has taken her share of lumps, but she has also made strides over the course of the season, facing the best opposing teams have to offer. On Friday, Pagnozzi showed what she is capable of, posting a 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Center Moriches senior Abigail Schaming. Riverhead won the team score, 5-2, leaving the Blue Waves (5-7, 5-5 Suffolk County League VIII) needing to win one of their final two matches in order to clinch a playoff berth. They will host Eastport-South Manor Saturday morning and then Ross Sunday morning.

“It’s definitely been rough,” said Pagnozzi, who brought her record to 4-8 Friday. “There’s a lot of good players.”

Pagnozzi, however, has a way of dealing with the pressure a seventh-grader might feel playing against League VIII’s top singles players. She said she looks at it like “you’re playing the ball, you’re not playing other players.”

Pagnozzi showed her ability to get to balls and then deliver some delightful winners. She put away 14 winners and limited herself to two unforced errors. She said she wants to clean up her double faults (she committed seven of them, three in one game).

“I think I did pretty well,” Pagnozzi said. “I feel like I could have done better, but I still won, so I guess I’m happy with that.”

Lessard, playing second singles for the second straight year, turned in a 6-1, 6-0 defeat of Savenna Reyes. Lessard (6-6), an All-League player last year, comes from a tennis family. Her sister Jocelyn played for Bishop McGann-Mercy and Riverhead. Her three older cousins — Brooke, Jamie and Cassidy Lessard — played for Mercy and her uncle Dave Lessard was an assistant coach at Mercy.

“We go as Kristy goes,” Guadagnino said. “She’s actually incredibly fun to watch. She’s very under control. She never lets her emotions get her. She plays very calm.”

Another one of Riverhead’s three seniors, Grace Kneidl, clinched the team win with her 6-3, 6-3 victory over Payton Noack at fourth singles.

Riverhead’s first doubles team of Rachel Hubbard and Shannon Noone recorded a 6-1, 6-4 win over Emma Matos and Kaley Maxwell. In second doubles, Riverhead’s Alex Hoverkamp and Wesley Keating beat Climele Browne and Kate Schaeffer, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

Center Moriches’ Sophia Pisciotta took her third singles match, 6-4, 6-2 over Natalie Starzee. In the only three-setter of the day, Center Moriches’ Gennie Matway and Natalie Tucci teamed up to top Julia DiPeri and Lia Zuckerberg, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6.

Center Moriches (6-5-1, 5-4-1) was missing three regular starters who were away on vacation, said coach Rob Spicer.

“As the season goes on, we’re improving, we’re learning, we’re playing better,” Guadagnino said. “We get a little bit more confident. And, you know, we have a lot of girls who played JV last year so, you know, they’re stepping up. It takes a little while to get used to the varsity competition.”

He continued: “It’s exciting. Girls tennis is doing alright in Riverhead.”

With the season winding down, Lessard expressed some regret. She said she didn’t appreciate tennis as much when she was younger, but since last year “I started to like really get into it, and I’m sad that it’s all over so soon once I’m starting to really love it.”