Syosset girls tennis loses in final of large schools state tournament

The last emotion of this season for the Syosset girls tennis team was disappointment, however the final scene was perfect.

Horace Greeley of Section I had won enough matches to secure the victory over Syosset in the state public school Division I (large schools) championship match on Friday at the USTA National Tennis Center. On Court Two in the Chase Center, Stephanie Marcheret was battling the Quakers’ Michelle Rosenblit and a left ankle that had to be re-taped during the second set into the final stretch. And there on the balcony above the contest, the Syosset girls stood together cheering every point.

“I really had hope for this team, but maybe I’m not as disappointed as I might have been,” senior Manasi Pradhan said. “This whole season has been filled with more good memories than a win here could have brought.”

“When I look back on this season, I don’t imagine thinking about things that happened on the court,” senior Zia Mukherjee said. “I’ll be thinking about how close we were and how we always lifted each other up.”

Horace Greeley’s 5-2 victory made Syosset the runner-up in three of the last four seasons. The Quakers (20-0) are state champs for the first time.

Marcheret won the first set but aggravated the ankle that sidelined her for several weeks and, though up 3-1 in the second set, had to halt the match very briefly to be re-taped by an athletic trainer. She ended up losing that set in a tiebreaker. But with her teammates cheering her on, she managed to pull out a 6-4, 6-7 (4), 1-0 [10-4] win.

Pradhan and Kayla Lo won at fourth doubles, 6-3, 6-4 and Hannah Wang was designated for a tournament sportsmanship award.

“You can't ask for more than 100% from a team and they were committed from day one to have the most successful season possible,” Syosset coach Shai Fisher said. “They became state finalists again and they have reason to be proud because we know it's how hard it is to get to this point.”

“You can’t be too disappointed about a loss to Horace Greeley,” he added. “That’s a tremendous team.”

Syosset won a morning semifinal against Brighton, 5-2, with a sweep of the four doubles matches. The tandems of Sanam Mehta and Diya Varma, Selena Wang and Hannah Wang, and Shubu Pradhan and Lo all had victories in straight sets. Elaine Liu had a 6-1, 6-0 win at third singles for Syosset (18-2).

Syosset did need the support of one another throughout the season. It didn’t have a fully healthy roster until the final weeks of the season. Players were challenged to play up a spot in the starting lineup and doubles combinations had to be reformulated several times.

“There were moments when the changes [bothered] us, but we always came back together stronger,” Mukherjee said. “You can’t go through some of the things we did, get to this point and not appreciate it.”

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

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.