Commack Beats Ward Melville to Win Fourth Straight County Title
For the fourth year in a row, the title of Suffolk County Boys Tennis Champions belongs to Commack.
On Monday morning, Commack battled past Ward Melville 4-3 in a thrilling county championship at Long Island Health & Racquet Club in East Setauket. The match was broken down to one team dominating the singles flights as Ward Melville won all three, but Commack’s doubles teams delivered the victory for them as the Cougars captured the four doubles flights.
For Ward Melville, Harshith Pennabadi won at first singles, Robert Monticciolo won at second singles and Aidan Thomas won at third singles.
“We had a lot of confidence in our doubles teams and our depth, we knew we could battle through everything,” said Danny Strogach.
Strogach delivered one of those doubles victories for Commack as he paired with Jayson Krauthamer to win 6-3, 6-3 at third doubles.
At fourth doubles, Jeffrey Behar & Evan Vieira delivered a 6-3, 6-4 win.
“We really have a team that supports each other, and it’s been that way all season,” said Behar. “The guys really got the job done, and trying to defend our title really gives us something to fight for, and we want to keep our season going as long as possible.”
After Saharsh Peddireddy & Joe Romito posted a 6-0, 6-2 win at second doubles, the county championship would come down to the first singles court, in a match between Commack’s Eric Benderly & James Yu and Ward Melville’s Shashank Pennabadi & Gabe Bursztyn.
In this back-and-forth match, Ward Melville jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Commack rallied to win the opening set in a tiebreaker. Pennabadi & Bursztyn responded with a 6-1 win in the second set which sent the match into a deciding third set.
At 4-4 in the decider, Commack got the decisive break to jump ahead 5-4, and Yu proceeded to serve out the match and clinch his team’s fourth straight Suffolk County title with a 6-7(8), 6-1, 6-4 victory.
“We just stayed with it,” Benderly said. “I think we both hunkered down, we know what we’re capable of and we did exactly what we know we can do. We used our strengths and tried to attack their weaknesses.”
Yu added:
“We stayed resilient, took it one point at a time and didn’t let the errors get to our heads. We didn’t focus on the scores too much. We don’t get frustrated with each other. We’ve been teammates for three years now so we know each other, and we use that experience to benefit us.”
Commack now moves on to play in the Long Island Championship against the Nassau County Champion, set for Monday, June 3 at Smithtown East High School.
