Half Hollow Hills East girls tennis wins third straight Suffolk team crown
Girls Tennes Large School Champions, Hills East. Shoreham, NY - Oct. 25, 2025. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin
During championship season, every match matters.
No. 1 Half Hollow Hills East claimed its third straight Suffolk large school championship with a 4-3 decision over No. 2 Westhampton in the girls team finals in Shoreham on Saturday.
The third-doubles pairing of Kayla Grochow and Kahenya Mukora defeated Westhampton duo Ana Way and Tess Ashley, 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3, to clinch the title and put Half Hollow Hills East up, 4-2, with one match remaining.
“We’re just so happy to contribute to the win,” said Grochow, a sophomore. “It’s not just our court that won. This was a whole team effort, and we’re just happy to be part of it.”
“Going into a third set was nerve-wracking,” Mukora added. “But I’m really glad we were able to push through.”
Grochow and Mukora were paired up in the postseason and have only played a few matches together before Saturday's championship, but the underclassmen duo has found its chemistry on the court.
“I love playing with Kayla,” said Mukora, a freshman. “She has a little more experience and is used to playing doubles when I’m usually a singles player. We just keep getting better the more we play together.”
Coach Steve Ferrantello said earning a third consecutive title is especially meaningful to his senior class, which has helped build Half Hollow Hills East’s legacy. Senior duo Christina Zhao and Jayden Seff claimed a 6-4, 6-1 win in second doubles over Westhampton pair Maddie Montgomery and Riley Magner.
“We have a really core group of seniors,” Ferrantello said. “Some of these girls have been on the team for four or five years. This is their last run so I think a three-peat is something that’s really special to them.”
Half Hollow Hills East’s record improved to 18-0 and the team will again face Nassau champion Syosset in the Long Island championship on Friday, Oct. 31, at Cold Spring Harbor. Syosset won last year's meeting, 6-1.
“We’re going to give them our best effort,” Ferrantello said. “We’ll assess after today, we’ll keep training hard, and we’ll do what we can to play our best.”
Westhampton’s record fell to 18-2, but the team’s journey does not end in Shoreham. The Hurricanes’ runner-up status earned them an at-large bid into the NYSPHSAA regional match, where they will face Vestal (Section IV) at noon on Nov. 3 at Starke Tennis Center in Binghamton.
Westhampton pair Zoe Grellet-Aumont and Gabby Arango defeated Half Hollow Hills East pair Samantha Heyman and Emma Wilke in first doubles, 6-4, 7-6 (2).
“We knew [Hills East’s] style of play, so we were focused on playing the net and knowing which shots we should go for and which we shouldn’t,” Arango said.
Heyman and Wilke took a 6-5 lead in the second set before Grellet-Aumont and Arango were able to force the tiebreaker. Grellet-Aumont said those high-stress situations are when it is most important to keep composure, a mindset the pair plans to bring to the state tournament in November.
“We just told ourselves to refocus and lock in,” Grellet-Aumont said. “We were up in the first set so we knew that we could do it, it was just a matter of finishing.”
As Half Hollow Hills East prepares to face the Syosset, Grochow said neither she nor her teammates will take any rally for granted as they are no longer guaranteed.
“This is such an amazing team to be part of,” Grochowsaid. “This team is so complementary and everybody always has each other’s back. I just think we’ll have to keep this momentum rolling through the rest of the season and even into next year.”
