59.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Cyclones reach tennis playoffs
Rebound strong after winless 2010 campaign
South Side’s up and down season on the tennis courts came to an end May 12 when the Cyclones came up short in opening round of the Nassau Conference II-B playoffs at Lynbrook, falling 5-2.
The third and fourth doubles tandems won for South Side, which split a pair of tight regular-season matches with the Owls. It finished 6-6 overall after struggling through a winless 2010 campaign.
“To go from 0-10 to the playoffs in one year is a pretty big step,” Cyclones coach Chris Colesanti said. “The way we ended was disappointing, but the kids fought hard every match. We let a few slip away. We lost three matches late in the season 4-3 and had a shot to win every one.”
In the playoff defeat at Lynbrook, the Cyclones got wins from junior Jon Weigell and senior Jake Reichert at third doubles, as well as seniors Zack Witkauer and Kyle Davis at fourth doubles. Weigell and Reichert rallied from five games down in the first set to win 7-5 and took the second set 6-3, while the Witkauer/Davis duo won for the eighth time in nine matches.
“We had three tough ones with Lynbrook,” Colesanti said. “We played a little better than them once, and they played a little better than us twice.”
Senior Billy Rizzuto had a gutsy effort for South Side at first singles, falling 6-3, 6-3 to highly touted Matt DeMichiel. “Billy was up against a superstar in most cases, but he competed well,” Colesanti said. “He didn’t go down without a fight, and he’s playing against kids who play six days a week. He laid it all out there against DeMichiel. He’s one of our senior captains and went out with a quality match.”
In the regular-season finale May 11, Rizzuto beat Oceanside’s Ben Strumeyer in a grueling 4-3 loss to the conference-champion Sailors. South Side dropped three of four doubles matches, including a decisive come-from-behind win by the Sailors in the No. 1 slot by Greg Flax and David Bader. Flax and Bader dropped the first set to juniors Chris Mulloly and Nick Kalafatis and trailed by three games in the second before rallying for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 triumph.
