Cold Spring Harbor Edges North Shore To Win Third Straight Nassau Small School Title
Cold Spring Harbor advanced to its third consecutive Long Island Small School Championship as the Seahawks edged North Shore 3-2 in the Nassau County final at Massapequa High School on Thursday.
“The girls are enjoying their time on the court, and for a lot of the girls who were on the sidelines last year, they are embracing being on court this season,” said Cold Spring Harbor head coach Melissa McLees. “They know what they want, and throughout the season they remained focused on where they want to go.”
It was North Shore who struck first on Thursday as Natalie Ion won 6-0, 6-1 at second singles, but the lead would not last long as Cold Spring Harbor got a 6-3, 6-4 victory from Hadley Arcati & Kate Rogers at third doubles.
Soon after, Dylan Savarese & Kaitlynn Hanna won 6-3, 6-1 at first doubles to put the Seahawks in front 2-1 with just two courts remaining. That’s where Stevie Sullivan & Alexa Torrey found themselves locked into a battle on the second doubles court.
After winning the opening set 6-4, Sullivan & Torrey were up 6-5 in the second set and on the return. On the crucial deuce point, a rally forced all players to move around the court, even causing Torrey to fall as she backtracked to hit a backhand. It would turn out to be a massive shot, as Sullivan soon after hit a winner to close out the match and clinch the championship for Cold Spring Harbor.
“During that last game, we said to each other that we had to win this. We knew Brooke [Winthrop] was still playing, and we wanted to get the win for our team,” said Sullivan. “Even though she fell I knew Lex was going to hit it over, I didn’t even know she had fallen but I tried to poach. When you know you have to win, and it comes down to those key points, having experience in these situations helps you stay focused.”
With the match clinched, Winthrop and her first singles opponent, Erica Jud, played a 10-point tiebreaker in the final third set. Jud would come out on top and win 6-7(1), 6-2, [10-8] to earn the second point for North Shore and round out the scoring.
Cold Spring Harbor has now won three straight Nassau County Small School titles. During the regular season, it competed in Nassau’s Conference I and therefore played the large school teams, which got them battle-tested for the playoff run.
“Because there were no other small schools in Conference I, we didn’t know what to expect coming into the playoffs,” said McLees. “I think going against teams like Syosset, Port Washington, Roslyn and others, even though we would lose gave us a lot to learn from. Each time the girls came off the courts after a loss, we would talk about what they learned and how they could do better next time. They all stepped up, put in that necessary mental work and put it to practice on the court.”
The Seahawks will have some time off before it plays in the Long Island Championship, which is scheduled for Saturday, November 2. It will play the winner of Bayport-Blue Point and Ross School in the finals.
“We’re just going to keep practicing and trying to get better every day to be ready,” said Torrey. “Especially after losing last year at States, we’re really motivated to get back there and win it this time.”
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