By STEVE SINISKI
The two teams, both of whom entered the match with perfect 16-0 records, didn't disappoint, and the Lady Colts scored a come-from-behind win, taking the series 4-3 after winning the final two matches. A two-set win by the fourth doubles tandem of Megan Madden and Goodman, capped by Madden's smash in the second and deciding game, followed a three-set win by the third doubles team of Liz Halleran and Rebecca Weinberg. Calhoun has now won three Nassau County titles in the last five seasons.
Madden and Goodman rallied from a two-point deficit to capture five of the final six points in the third match for a 15-12 win. "It was a clash of the titans," Lady Colts coach Gregg Muscarella said. "We were both 16-0 and it could have gone either way.
"We were made for each other. I knew it was going to be 4-3 and the other coach knew it was going to be 4-3. We just didn't know the order."
The see-saw battle began with senior captain Brenna McGreevy fighting back with six straight points for a 13-10 tiebreaker win in the opening battle of first singles. Still reeling from the late comeback, her opponent, Elizabeth Ling, had little confidence left and didn't even register a point in the second set, dropping an 11-0 decision. "She went out with eight arms and eight legs and blinded the girl," Muscarella said of McGreevy's blowout. "She said to me, 'Coach, I was unwilling to lose.'"
Consecutive losses in the second and third singles gave Great Neck North an early 2-1 series edge, and the Blazers seemed primed to stretch the lead in doubles play. Their No. 1 duo of Nathalie Eched and Micheline Zhou had a four-point lead, needing one more to take the set. Seniors Nicole Boland and Jessica Lin, however, did more than just make a late push. They won seven of the final eight points to win 17-15 in a tiebreaker and swept the series with a 15-7 victory in the second set. "They took a stand and chipped away," Muscarella said. "That was a fantastic win."
Adriana Sek and Rachel Feingersh dropped a two-set battle in second doubles, setting the stage for the Lady Colts' rally. Halleran and Weinberg needed three games to come out on top, in a made-for-TV script. Weinberg, who celebrated her birthday, got a gift that she'll never forget, in teaming with Sek to knock off the County Championship team of Jane Chu and Debbie Yee that had beaten them just one week earlier in individual competition.
"They were two seniors, and it went to a three-game set," Muscarella said. "The whole crowd was into it."
Boasting an overall record of 92-5 over the last six seasons, success is nothing new to Calhoun's varsity badminton team, whose 36-player roster was the largest in Nassau County. "The team on championship day rose to the occasion and played brilliantly," Muscarella said. "To call badminton intense would shock most people."
But to those who witnessed the Lady Colts' late rally to capture the Nassau County title, no other term may be more appropriate.
