Oresky, Tacher Win Eighth Straight Pine Hollow Club Championship

Oresky, Tacher Win Eighth Straigh

By Brian Coleman

Ore s ky and T a cher (left) wo n the Wome n ’ s Double s ch a mpio ns hip for an ei g hth s tr a i g ht ye a r

For the eighth year in a row, Maxine Oresky and Amy Tacher are the winners of the Pine Hollow Country Club Women’s Doubles Championships.

The duo defeated Robyn Finn and Randi Fagen 6-3, 7-5 to capture the title and continue their reign.

“I think it’s because we’re very positive with each other on the court and we compliment each other’s games very well,” said Oresky. “Amy is an amazing doubles player and I try to follow her lead.”

Defending their championship was not an easy task, as Fagen and Finn came ready to play. The challengers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Oresky and Tacher after an early break of serve to put the pressure on the reigning titlists.

“There were definitely some nerves on my part early,” said Tracher. “Maxine was very steady in the first few games which gave me the ability to shed those nerves, and we got back to playing our game.”

The two would rally to win six of the next seven games to take the opening set. The second set was back-and-forth and tightly

I n a rem a tch of l as t ye a r’ s fi na l, J a y W a l d h a u s er and Steve Soifer (ri g ht) d efe a te d Ricky Spike and Mike Ferber

contested. At 5-6, 40-15, Fagen and Finn were serving to stay in the match when Oresky and Tracher won four straight points to secure the break, win the match and seal their eighth straight title.

Tacher would come back later in the weekend and compete in the Women’s Singles final against Alli Schwartz. Schwartz defended her crown by way of a 6-3, 6-0 victory.

“Overall I think I played pretty well,” said Schwartz. “I trusted myself to hit winners when the time was right and played a strong net game. Winning the first set was huge for

ght Pine Hollow Club Championship

Neil Shmuely (left) d efe a te d Ricky Spike to wi n the Me n ’ s Si ng le s d ivi s io n

Mixe d Double s ch a mp s Neil Shmuely and Alli Schw a rtz with their re s pective f a milie s a fter their victory

Alli Schw a rtz, Wome n ’ s Si ng le s wi nn er, with her hu s b and M a tt

me and I was able to take that momentum and finish the second set strong.”

Schwartz would then pair with Neil Shmuely to win the Mixed Doubles championship, notching a 6-4, 6-2 win over Tracher and Gonzalo Saravi, rebounding from a difficult third-set tiebreak defeat in last year’s final.

Shmuely would also take home the Men’s Singles title as he defeated Ricky Spike 6-3, 6-1 in the championship.

“I have to go into the match with a different game plan when facing Spike,” said Shmuely. “He is the best net player I have played against, and his style of play matches up to my weaknesses quite well…I recall telling [Pine Hollow Tennis Director] Ricky Becker last year that my goal was to get my name on the wall, no matter what tournament it was for. Now that it’s there a few times, I just want to keep improving my game and anything from there is icing on the cake.”

Rounding out the Pine Hollow Club Championships winners was Jay Waldhauser and Steve Soifer, who came back from a set down and avenged a defeat in last year’s final to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 over Spike and Mike Ferber.

“Our club tournament definitely provided normalcy to our members this year,” said Becker. “A lot of changes to our schedule were necessary to be responsible with COVID but our annual tournament which started in late June definitely put tennis as a safe activity on the map for us this summer.”

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