2021 Long Island Boys’ High School Recap

2021 Long Island Boys’ High

Syosset Edges Roslyn for Nassau County Title

n the latest installment of the Syosset-Roslyn rivalry, the two notoriously dominant programs met in the Nassau County Championship at Eisenhower Park.

After seven intense flights of tennis, it was the Braves of Syosset who claimed the county championship by edging the Bulldogs 4-3. Syosset has now won five of the last six county titles.

“Roslyn’s a great team. Awesome depth, top-heavy singles players and great doubles players. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” said Syosset head coach Shai Fisher. “I’m just proud of our boys. This is an extremely young team, and they just kept improving. Our singles lineup was pretty solid, but it was the depth and the improvement of our doubles that really carried us through the year.”

It was the doubles teams that would push Syosset to the early lead. Chris Vallone & Devan Melandro won 6-1, 6-3 at first doubles, and Evan Lee & Nikhil Shah posted a 6-2, 6-4 victory at second doubles to give their team the advantage.

Roslyn’s Eli Levitt & Matt Stone put the Bulldogs on the board with their 7-5, 6-3 victory at fourth doubles, but Jeremy Levine brought Syosset within one win of the county title after he won 6-1, 6-3 at third singles.

Soon after, the third doubles duo of Spencer Keschner & Dylan Apfel completed their 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 comeback win to clinch the championship for the Braves.

“We didn’t want to think about the score too much because we wanted to remain calm, but we had an idea of what was going on,” said Keschner. “After months of

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practice, and going through the whole season, it means a lot. And we won 4-3, which means we needed contributions from everyone…the atmosphere here today was great, and everyone was so excited. It means everything.”

With two matches remaining despite the county title already being clinched, Roslyn continued to fight on the first and second singles courts. Ethan Solop completed a comeback from 1-5 down in the third set to win at second singles, while Mikey Weitz won in three sets at first singles to round out the Bulldogs’ three victories.

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Commack Completes Undefeated Suffolk Season, Wins County Title

After not having a season last spring, the Commack boys’ tennis team came out motivated in 2021. That mentality helped guide the Cougars to an undefeated regular season, which it capped off with a county championship after defeating Ward Melville 6-1 at Shoreham-Wading River High School.

“We’re really happy. These kids worked exceptionally hard,” said Commack head coach Jimmy Delevante. “Every day at practice, we pushed them, and they would challenge me to push them even harder. No complaints, just the most polite, hard-working kids I could ask for.”

After defeating Hills East in the semifinals, Commack aimed to push its season record to 17-0, but it was Ward Melville who jumped out to the early lead in the county final.

The first doubles duo of Matthew Kronenberg & Gabe Bursztyn, who won the county doubles title the previous weekend, put the Patriots ahead with a 6-1, 6-0 victory.

But the county singles champion, Commack’s Eddie Liao, evened things up with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph at first singles.

“It’s both his skill set and the energy he brings,” Delevante said of Liao. “I think knowing that he is on the team gives everyone a little extra confidence. They look to him as a leader, and he sets the example every day. He’s such a team player and is always supporting all the guys; he is such an asset to us.”

After Liao’s win, Commack began to rattle off more wins and started to pull away. Soon after, Matthew Strogach notched a 6-0, 7-6(5) win at third singles, and Eric Benderly won 6-1, 6-2 at fourth singles to put some separation between the two teams.

The clinching victory would come from the second doubles tandem of Joe Romito & Ryan Burke, who won 7-5, 6-4 to seal their team’s title.

James Yu notched a 6-3, 6-2 victory at second singles, and Saharsh Peddireddy & Avi Gupta rounded out Commack’s six points with a 1-6, 6-0, 6-2 comeback at fourth doubles.

“It means so much. I’m happy with how hard this team has worked all season,” said Strogach, who is the lone player remaining from Commack’s 2018 county title. “From the first day of tryouts, our goal was to play tennis on June 18, in the Long Island Championship, and I’m really excited that we fulfilled that goal.”

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Syosset's Gao & Levine Capture Doubles Crown

Tennis is often a battle of attrition. In order to win, you have to fight through adversity and often times tough conditions to come through victorious.

That was the case on a brutally hot afternoon at Eisenhower Park where the top singles and doubles players competed in the final rounds of the Nassau County Boys’ Individual Championships.

“The heat was rough but being here with teammates, family, friends and coaches really got me through it,” said Hewlett sophomore Stephan Gershfeld. “The environment was amazing.”

Gershfeld captured the Nassau County singles title as he defeated Roslyn’s Mikey Weitz 6-2, 6-1 in the championship match. That victory came hours after Gershfeld downed Great Neck South’s Albert Hu 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals.

“This has been my dream. I’ve been playing high school tennis since seventh grade and I’ve always wanted to be a county champion,” said Gershfeld. “I had a lot of adrenaline coming into this tournament, and I was really motivated so it means a lot to me.”

Hewlett head coach Joyce Narciso-Raikos talked about Gershfeld’s prowess on the court, but also the impact he had on the Hewlett team.

“He’s a great kid with a great work ethic,” she said. “He showed up to practice and always gave it his all. He helped me a lot with our team, not only as a top singles player but also helping develop our doubles teams as well. In the first match, he came out tight. He was beating himself and missing shots he normally doesn’t. We went back to focusing on high percentage shots until he started feeling the ball again, and he was able to do that well.”

Hu finished in third-place in the final singles draw as Jericho’s Michael Safir was forced to withdraw before the match.

The Syosset senior duo of Brian Gao & Jeremy Levine claimed the doubles title by defeating Ethan Solop & Gavin Koo of Roslyn 6-2, 6-2 in the finals. Despite not playing doubles together prior to this event, Gao & Levine used the chemistry they have developed over the years as the two have been on the Syosset team since they were seventh graders.

“It’s amazing,” said Levine. “And it’s a great feeling being able to do with my fellow co-captain.”

In regards to battling through the heat on a long day, Gao added:

“I cramp very easily, and I drank like four bottles of Pedialyte throughout the day. I think the key was just remaining focused throughout the day. We were confident coming into the tournament and managed to pull through.”

After being without any season last spring due to the pandemic, the Syosset pair came out this year with added motivation and put it into action this past weekend.

“They have been our go-to leaders for two years now, and it started last year during the pandemic. They were on a mission this year, having not been able to play last year, and came into this tournament laser-focused. Even though there was a lengthy downtime in between matches, they knew what they needed to do to get themselves ready. They took everything in stride and made the best of the situation. I’m extremely proud of them.”

In the third-place doubles match, Hewlett’s Alexander Sherman and Benjamin Grushkovskiy defeated Great Neck North’s Damien Chafe & Luke Hakimian 7-5, 6-2.

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Commack's Liao Takes Suffolk Singles Title

Ward Melville's Kronenberg & Bursztyn Capture Doubles Crown

Photo credit to Stefen Rosner

Commack’s Eddie Liao put a bow on his dominant freshman season on Saturday, winning the Suffolk County singles title by way of a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Harborfields junior Chris Qi at Smithtown East High School.

“It feels amazing,” said Liao. “I’ve always wanted to win this tournament, and so to finally be able to do it feels great.”

Liao had not dropped a match all season long as he helped guide his Commack squad to an undefeated regular season and the top-seed in the playoffs. He was tested in the second set by Qi, who took a 4-3 advantage, but Liao rattled off the next three games of the set to close out the match in straight sets.

“I think the key was just being patient, and my serve was a big weapon for me today,” Liao added. “[Christopher] is a very good friend of mine and we know each other pretty well, so to play against him was a nice rivalry I guess.”

In the doubles final, the Ward Melville duo of Matthew Kronenberg & Gabe Bursztyn knocked off Hills East’s Michael Han & Atreya Rawat, the event’s top seeds, 6-2, 7-5.

“I think it took a lot of focus and concentration to stay in the match and keep our energy levels up,” said Kronenberg. “After you win a set, it’s easy to let your focus slip a little bit so it was really important that we were able to stay within our game and continue doing the things that were working. It was difficult, but we pulled through and that’s what it matters.”

After playing a dominant first set, the Ward Melville pair let its guard down a bit which allowed the Hills East duo to work its way back into the match.

“They started playing well in the second and started to come back, which got us frustrated and we started missing more,” added Bursztyn. “But we were able to pull it out, put our heads down and just focus on finishing.” Ward Melville head coach Erik Sussin echoed those sentiments, and was proud of the way his players responded to close out the match in straight sets. “They dominated that first set quite well. They stepped into the net when they needed to and served really well. The second set was much closer, they really stepped up their game, and I think we saw the finish line way too early,” said Sussin. “But our guys were able to close it out. In the end, we were the better team and we were glad to come away with the win.”

Syosset Defeats Commack to Claim Long Island Championship

Coming into this season, there were some questions surrounding the Syosset Braves. With just three returning seniors in the starting lineup, and eight new starters to integrate into the lineup, the Braves had its work cut out for them.

And the Braves put in that work, and it resulted in a dominant campaign which led to an undefeated season, a Nassau County championship, and finally, a Long Island title after it defeated Commack 5-2 in the Long Island Championship at Eisenhower Park.

“I’m speechless,” said head coach Shai Fisher. “If you asked the captains before the season where we would be at this point in the season, I’m not sure they would say this. We knew we could be good, but the guys continued to improve throughout the year, and our leaders did a great job of bringing all the new guys along. All the credit goes to them, and it’s a testament to how hard they worked.” One of those captains, senior cocaptain Jeremy Levine, put Syosset ahead early in the Long Island title match as he notched a 6-0, 6-0 win at third singles. To bolster the Braves lead, Clay Jeon & Ryan Jiang won 6-1, 6-1 at fourth doubles to push the lead to 2-0. Commack would get on the board thanks to Joe Romito & Ryan Burke’s 6-3, 6-3 triumph on the second doubles court.

But Syosset began to pull away. Chris Vallone & Devin Melandro held on to win 6-1, 7-5 at first doubles, and needing one court to clinch the win, Dylan Apfel & Spencer Keschner delivered the goods with a 6-4, 6-3 win at third doubles.

“This time we were definitely more aware of the situation,” said Apfel, referring to their clinching win in the Nassau County championship.

Keschner added:

“It’s crazy to come into the year and not even know if you are going to make the team, but then to become such a vital part of the team and get a win like this. It’s just amazing.”

Commack’s Eddie Liao would win 6-3, 6-2 at first singles, but Brian Gao completed the scoring with a 6-4, 6-4 win at second singles for Syosset.

“I think this team just got along so well, and I don’t know if there is a specific reason for that,” said Gao, one of the other senior co-captains. “For me, this team is the closest one I’ve been on in my time here at Syosset. It’s been a great adventure. You could see from the first practice that everyone was buying in and we were developing that chemistry.” Vallone, the third senior on the team, who contributed a big win at first doubles, added: “We wanted to make the most out of this season, and I’m glad we were able to finish it off with a W.”

Syosset finishes the season at 15-0, and brings both county and Long Island hardware back home.

“A lot of credit goes to the Syosset community,” added Fisher. “We were afforded the ability to do intramurals back in December and January, and the guys took it upon themselves to put the work in, and the leadership welcomed everybody new into the team. That really set the tone from the beginning.”