Friends Beats Wheatley For Third Straight Nassau Small School Title
For the third consecutive year, the title of Nassau County Small School (Division II) Boys’ Tennis Champions belongs to Friends Academy.
The Quakers pulled off the three-peat thanks to a 3-2 victory over Wheatley at Cold Spring Harbor High School on Tuesday as the two programs squared off in the title match for a fourth straight season.
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Will Bohner got his team started with a 6-1, 6-0 victory at first singles, putting Friends Academy in front with the early 1-0 lead in the best-of-five courts matchup.
“He had a really big serve, and the win was an issue today especially when it was at his back when serving, but my plan was to just make balls and rally with him. I just tried to make returns and make him hit an extra ball, that was the biggest thing,” said Bohner. “I played high-percentage tennis. I made sure to use a lot of kick serves and only had one double-fault, and just let my shots do the work.”
Friends Academy would push the lead to 2-0 after Vir Singh & Steven Seviroli notched a 6-1, 6-1 win at third doubles, bringing their team within one victory of another county title.
Wheatley would not go quietly, though, as Julian Ostrow & Nadav Farahnik won 6-3, 6-2 at first doubles to put the Wildcats on the board, and bring the overall match to 2-1 in favor of Friends Academy.
With two courts remaining, the county title hung in the balance. That’s where the second doubles pairing of Hudson Lee & Henry Koelmel leaned on their experience competing in pressure-packed matches.
A year ago, the two clinched Friends Academy’s Long Island Small School title in a thrilling three-set match against Ross School, so they knew what they had what it took to prevail on this day.
“Last year definitely helped us today, we knew we had good chemistry, and that we were able to fight through and could do this,” said Lee. “We did it last year and we knew we could do it again.”
The pairing did just that, hanging tough in the biggest moments to pull out a 6-4 win in the deciding set to clinch the county championship with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 comeback victory.
“We take it day-by-day, but we know we have what it takes to win these matches. We’re excited to try to win the Long Island Championship again,” said Koelmel. “We’re going to try and ride this momentum and keep the mindset that we have what it takes to win big matches like this.”
To round out the scoring, Wheatley’s Liel Agajan defeated Bryan Bin 7-6(6), 7-6(5) at second singles.
Friends Academy advances to the Long Island Small School (Division II) Championship where it will face off against the Suffolk champions Ross School, who defeated Bayport-Blue Point 4-3 in the Suffolk final.
“Will got us going, Hudson and Henry played their usual tennis and pulled it out in the end, and Abir and Steven stepped up for us the way they have all season,” said Friends head coach Owen Kassimir. “It’s really great to be in this position again, and we’re looking forward to the Long Island Championship.”
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