Hills East Beats Westhampton Beach For Third Straight Suffolk Title

For the third straight time, the title of Suffolk County Large School Champions belongs to the girls from Hills East.

The Red Hawks completed the three-peat with a 4-3 victory over Westhampton Beach on the courts of Shoreham-Wading River High School.

“We have a lot of pride in our program so to be able to win and continue tradition here means a lot,” said Hills East head coach Steve Ferrantello. “We have a core senior group who have been here for awhile. It’s their last run, so to be able to have that three-peat is something really special.”

The singles play helped get things started for Hills East as Ashley Pursoo won her contest at first singles, while Avery Sherman came back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 at third singles.

Westhampton Beach would take the second singles point thanks to a 7-5, 6-4 victory from Grace Hart. 

At first doubles, Westhampton Beach’s Gabriela Arango & Zoe Grellet-Aumont defeated Samantha Heyman & Emma Wilck 6-4, 7-6(2) to exact some revenge after the Hills East duo beat them in the fifth-place match of the Suffolk County Individual Championships earlier in the week. 

Arango & Grellet-Aumont wanted to respond from that loss, and entered this match with a new mindset. 

“We were definitely more focused on being active at the net, and knowing what shots we should go for,” said Arango. “We knew it was a new match, so we wanted to forget everything, and lock in.”

Christina Zhao & Jayden Seff were 6-3, 6-1 winners at second doubles, while the Westhampton Beach tandem of Abigail Gomez & Ali Brandi came back to win 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 at fourth doubles.

The clinching victory for Hills East would come from Kayla Grochow & Kahenya Mukora, who sealed the third-straight county title for their school with a 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-3 win. Grochow & Mukora only played together once before prior to the county final, but found quick chemistry on the court. 

“I call Kayla my mother in doubles, she’s used to playing doubles and helps me a lot when we are on court,” said Mukora. “Going to a third-set was nerve wracking but we were able to push through.”

Grochow added: 

“We’re just really happy we were able to contribute to the team’s win. It’s not just our court, so we’re proud to be a part of this team. Today was about not giving up. We knew what worked in the first set, and we just had to go back to what we did in that set, and it worked.”

Hills East advances to the Long Island Large School Championship against Syosset.