Herricks' Angel Walia is making a big case at state girls tennis Individual Championships
Angel Walia won in singles semifinals over Brighton’s Leyla Tozin (not pictured) to advance to state individual girls tennis final on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. Credit: James Escher
Angel Walia doesn’t cut an imposing figure, standing just 5-3. The Herricks senior also is not an intimidator, simply soft spoken and polite. She’d be among the last people one might suspect of causing a ruckus at the state girls tennis public schools Individual Championships.
But that’s precisely what she did on Tuesday.
Installed as the No. 6 seed in the singles draw, the speedy baseliner who hits with power beyond her size, upset the No. 3 seed and the No. 2 seed in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, to scramble the tournament bracket and land a spot in Wednesday’s state singles championship match.
She will meet top-seeded Olivia Dartawan, a sophomore from Niskayuna High, in the 7:30 a.m. final at the USTA National Tennis Center in Queens. Dartawan lost the 2023 final to Garden City’s Nina Wiese, and Walia took sixth place.
Walia won’t be the only Long Islander vying for a state crown on Wednesday. The Great Neck South team of junior Madison Lee and seventh grader Gabrielle Villegas — the top seed — won a three-set quarterfinal then rolled to a straight-set semifinal win to reach the state doubles final. They will meet the sixth-seeded Horace Greeley team of senior Allison Tsai and junior Michelle Rosenblit in the 7:30 a.m. final.
This is an impressive rebound from the Nassau Tournament for Walia, where she was the top seed. She lost a semifinal to eventual champion Angelina Bravo of Garden City and was clearly emotional after the defeat. Any confidence that might have been lost in that moment has been regained by posting four straight-set wins in two days while dropping just 19 games in the eight sets.
“I knew my seeding was due to how I played in ‘counties’ and I’ve put that behind me,” Walia said. “That wasn’t like me, not how I play. This is how I should be playing and it feels really good right now, but it’s not over yet.”
Walia posted a 6-1, 6-2 win over Suffolk singles champion Anya Konopka of Smithtown East in the quarterfinals. She then ground down Leyla Tozin of Brighton, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinal.
Tozin’s strategy was to make Walia run from side to side, but she didn’t wear down. Walia won the last two games to take the first set and got an early service break in the second set and held serve to the finish.
There was one Long Island entry in each doubles quarterfinal, however, Lee and Villegas were the only one to reach the semifinals. And while they admitted they didn’t play like a top seed all through Monday’s first rounds and into the start of their quarterfinal, they certainly ended up playing like one in the run-up to the final.
They admitted to surprise at being seeded No. 1 on the eve of the tournament. But after defeating senior Samantha Ostrander and sophomore Lydia Koivula of Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, in a quarterfinal and Scarsdale senior Kay Cottrell and Isabel Lin, 6-2, 6-4, in a semifinal, they have a confidence matching their seeding.
“We’re getting better as we go on,” Lee said. “We’re now playing to a level we hadn’t played before . . . and it’s comfortable.
The Rebels play with an enthusiasm evident after every point won. It was clearly under the skin of the Scarsdale team as they tried to win the final game of the second set. Scarsdale won the first two points and celebrated them in a mocking manner. Lee and Villegas won the next four points to end the match.
“That just made us want it more,” Villegas said. “We got more determined after that.”
Bravo going for 5th. In singles medal matches on Wednesday, Bravo will play for fifth place and Konopka for seventh. In doubles medal matches, Westhampton’ Matilda Buchen and Ava Borruso will play Roslyn’s Alex Krol and Chloe Gross for fifth place and Bayport-Blue Point’s Emilia and Evie Romano will be in the seventh-place match.
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.