Bayport-Blue Point's Emilia and Evie Romano take Suffolk girls tennis doubles title
Emilia (left) and Evie Romano of Bayport-Blue Point win the Suffolk girls doubles championship at Smithtown East on Monday. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
As great as their 2023 girls tennis season was, Emilia Romano and Evie Romano of Bayport-Blue Point had their share of disappointments. The sisters were named to Newsday’s All-Long Island team after helping the Phantoms win a Suffolk small school team title and also pairing up to reach the county individual doubles championship. But BBP didn’t win the Long Island team title and the Romanos didn’t win the county doubles crown.
They’re off to a much better start this year. On Thursday, they helped the Phantoms advance to another Suffolk team title match and Monday they won the county doubles title. Emilia, a senior, and Evie, a sophomore, were perfect complements as they scored a 6-3, 6-4 victory over senior Matilda Buchen and freshman Ava Borruso of Westhampton in the final at the Suffolk County Individual Championships at Smithtown East.
“Last year was very upsetting when we lost, but we've been thinking about it ever since,” Emilia Romano said. “We knew we were going to come back, try our hardest, and we knew we could definitely win.”
The Romanos won the final three games of the match to come back from 3-4. Evie served for the final points and Emilia finished it with a poach at the net for a winner.
In a battle for third place and a spot in the state tournament — and it was a battle — eighth-grader Lillie Weiss and seventh-grader Luanna Carmo shook off a miserable second set and defeated Half Hollow Hills East juniors Sammi Heyman and Emma Wilck, 6-3, 0-6, 7-5. They will join the Romanos and the Westhampton team in representing Suffolk at the state tournament on Oct. 28-30 at the National Tennis Center in Queens.
Smithtown East senior Anya Konopka absorbed an early challenge from Mount Sinai freshman Sofia Perez before asserting her dominance late to win in singles, 7-5, 6-0. Konopka, got comfortable on the same court where she plays in Bulls home matches and won the final nine games for her second straight title.
“It's very nice to finish my senior season with two county [titles] in a row,” Konopka said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself in the first set because I wanted to win. Then I kind of let it all go in the second and played.”
Perez struck some great passing shots en route to leading 5-4 in the first set. She fought off three break points while serving for the set in the 10th game, but Konopka got the service break on the fourth.
In five wins over three days, Konopka won 10 sets and dropped only eight games.
As a junior, Konopka beat Perez’s first cousin, then-senior Maria Perez of Middle County.
Asked if winning the second time was harder than the first, she replied: “It was more of a mental game. Last year I was a junior, I knew I had another year to do it and Maria was a senior. There was less pressure on me. But this year, [Sofia Perez is] young and I'm old.”
Longwood eighth-grader Sofia Matos won the third-place match over Copiague freshman Victoria Abayev, 6-0, 6-1, and will join Konopka and Perez in the state tournament draw.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.