Doubles Teams Leads Syosset to Nassau County Large School Title

The Syosset Braves entered Tuesday’s Nassau County Large School Championship with a chip on its shoulder. Despite being the top-seed in the tournament and not losing a match during the regular season, a lot of the talk coming in was about its opponent, Garden City.

The Trojans boasted an undefeated season of their own, and had a roster that consisted of the New York State singles champion, Nina Wiese, and the Nassau County doubles champions, Kayla Castellano & Angelina Bravo.

“I talked to my players and told them that they were the underdogs today,” said Syosset head coach Shai Fisher. “Everyone was loving Garden City and so I tried to use some reverse psychology and make that work for us. That’s not a disrespect to Garden City, they deserved all the accolades they are getting, but when the hype is around one team, I’m going to use that to motivate my girls.”

That motivational tactic worked as the Braves won all four doubles flights to edge the Trojans 4-3 and claim the county championship.

Syosset’s Selena Wang & Taylor Weinstock got their team going on Tuesday by posting a 6-3, 6-1 victory at third doubles which was soon followed up by a 6-0, 6-3 win from Manasi Pradhan & Ava Weinstock at fourth doubles to put Syosset ahead 2-0.

Wiese would get Garden City on the board as she won her match at first singles 6-2, 6-0, but Syosset’s first doubles tandem of Sanam Mehta & Manami Wakazono won 6-3, 6-4 to put the Braves ahead 3-1 and move their team within one win of the county title.

“We knew first doubles would be a crucial match today,” added Fisher. “We wanted to attack the baseline with deep lobs, finish volleys and go down the line when the opportunities were there.”

Garden City’s Sofia Kedrin brought her team closer as she was a 6-4, 6-1 winner at second singles, but the second doubles pairing of Julia Isham & Diya Varma were poised to clinch the overall win for Syosset.

Despite dropping the first set, the young Syosset pair, Isham a sophomore and Varma an eighth-grader, rebounded strongly in the ensuing two sets, and completed a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 comeback victory to give Syosset the clinching fourth win on the afternoon.

“It was freezing today so it took awhile for us to get warmed up and loose,” said Isham. “Once we got our rhythm down, we knew we should win the match.”

As she served for the match at 5-1, 40-40, Varma told herself to remain focused on the task at hand.

“I missed my first serve and I knew I just had to get my second serve in,” she said. “I was able to do that, and we won the rally, and my mind just went blank. I was so relieved. They play a little different than how we are used to, so that threw us off in the beginning. But as we started the second set we knew we had it, and in the third we just focused on holding our serves and taking it one point at a time.”

Fisher added:

“We knew we would be tested today, and we were, but our girls came out ready to go. The team was very confident coming in, we had some great practices leading up to it and they really believed.”

Garden City’s Kayla Castellano rounded out the scoring on the day as she won 6-2, 7-6(3) at third singles.

Syosset now heads back to the Long Island Large School Championship and into a matchup with Suffolk champions Hills East. After falling in the county finals a year ago, Isham said the girls from Syosset are excited to get a chance to compete for the LI title:

“Last year we didn’t get a chance to go so we want to redeem ourselves.”