After losing to Wantagh last week, the Carle Place High School girls tennis team was seeking their first season win on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at home against Clarke High School. It was a tightly contested match and it came down to a final third singles match to see which team would prevail. Third singles player, Catarina Rosas, took her opponent to three sets and got the score to 3-3 in the third set, but was unable to pull out the win losing 5-7, 3-6. The Frogs ended up losing the match 3-4.
“We have only 12 players on the team and a couple of new girls who have never played on a team,” said head coach Brian Paradine. “We were 1-11 last year and this season we are trying to improve on that record and just get a little better each match.”
The team has some quality players including first singles player, April Schmuck, who has been with the team for three years and newcomer Eileen Liang, who also plays on the school’s basketball team. Ninth-grader Julia Winek is also a newly featured player who will try and help out in doubles.
Paradine has been coaching the girls tennis team for 22 years and said that a few years ago his teams were regulars in the County playoffs.
“We had a good stretch for about five or six years when we always made the playoffs. The last few years we haven’t had as many girls come out for the team and we don’t have too many multi year players.”
The Frogs put in a valiant effort against Clarke getting nice wins from their doubles teams. The first doubles team, made up of team captain, Natalie Steck and Tania Gonsalves, handily beat their opponents 6-0 6-1. The second and third doubles teams also recorded victories.
Schmuck, was one of the better matches of the day as she took her opponent, Lynn Kuh, to three sets. She got off to a rough start losing 0-6 in the opening set but regained her composure in the second set and bounced back for a hard fought 7-6 win. Both players left it all out on the court in the third set, with Kuh proving to be the steadier player pulling off the third set win. The final score of the match was 0-6, 7-6, 4-6.
Paradine said the team will rely on Schmuck, Rosas and Liang, who will substitute from doubles to singles, to help the team in their upcoming matches.
The Frogs will look for a victory again at their home game against East Meadow on Sept. 24 at 4:45 p.m.
