Half Hollow Hills East girls tennis wins Suffolk large school championship by beating Westhampton
Half Hollow Hills’ East’s Christina Zhao returns a shot in the second doubles match during the Suffolk High School Girls Tennis large school finals between Westhampton and Half Hollow Hills East on Saturday Oct 26, 2024 at Smithtown East High School Credit: Bob Sorensen
Four of the seven matches were already in the books on Saturday and the Suffolk County girls team tennis large school championship match between Half Hollow Hills East and Westhampton was still hanging in the balance. And though Hills East had won three of the four, it felt as if the momentum might be ebbing.
In the first doubles match, the Hurricanes team of Matilda Buchen and Ava Borruso had turned the page on a poor first set and were now rolling in the third. In the fourth doubles match, the teams had split the first two sets. And at second doubles, the Hills East team of Christina Zhao and Jayden Seff was trying to ward off a second-set comeback by Westhampton’s Ana Way and Shannon Killoran.
Zhao and Seff held serve through a pair of deuce points to win the 11th game and then saw Way and Killoran fight off three championship points in the 12th. Zhao put away a nifty poach to get Hills East a fourth crack at the title and they did not waste it. After the 6-2, 7-5 win clinched it, they were mobbed by teammates on the court and Zhao was moved to tears at what would become a 5-2 victory at windy Smithtown East.
“The rallies were long and I had to put the point away,” Zhao said of her play at the net. “We needed to win that match and end this.”
Hills East [15-2] is county champion for the 20th time overall and second year in a row after downing the top-seeded Hurricanes (17-2), just as it did last season. Hills East advances to the Nov. 2 Long Island Division I championship match at Shoreham-Wading River, a rematch of last year’s Island title match against Nassau champion Syosset (16-1). Hills East will be seeking its first Long Island crown.
Asked about the import of defending the county title, Seff replied, “It’s really important to keep Hills’ name strong.”
Hills East dropped two of its first three matches and had to re-work its lineup when first singles player Anjali Razza opted out of playing the rest of the season after the fourth match. Zhao was moved from second singles into doubles, and so the team used an almost entirely new singles lineup the rest of the way.
That paid off against Westhampton, which went with a doubles-heavy starting lineup, when Hills East swept the three singles matches. First singles Kate Holland, second singles Kahenya Mukora and third singles Julia Zinkin all won in straight sets. The trio dropped a total of six games in winning the six sets.
“There is actually [pride], because this is not always a Hills East way,” coach Steve Ferrantello said. “Hills East has been doubles, doubles, doubles. So to take all the singles is pretty cool. . . it was nice to see from these three girls, who have all had to move up multiple spots.”
“I was really happy with how I handled the strong wind because every time you switch sides you have to have a new mindset,” Zinkin said. “I tried to keep my ball low, out of the wind, and just block everything out.”
Remy Buffa and Sasha Chandok of Hills East ended up pulling out the fourth doubles win, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.
Buchen and Borruso won a high-level first doubles match 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 — winning the final five games after trailing 1-4 in the third set — and Zoe Grellet-Aumont and Gabby Arango added a straight sets win at third doubles for the Hurricanes.
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.