Syosset's Stephanie Marcheret wins Nassau singles tennis title
Syosset’s Stephanie Marcheret celebrates a point against Great Neck South’s Gabrielle Villegas during the Nassau girls singles final at Eisenhower Park on Saturday. Credit: Kathy M Helgeson
For Syosset senior Stephanie Marcheret, the road to a state championship berth wasn’t easy — but it was worth every rally.
Marcheret outlasted eighth-grade opponent Gabrielle Villegas of Great Neck South in a gritty 6-4, 7-6 (5) battle, holding her composure through every pressure-packed point and earning the Nassau County singles title at Eisenhower Park.
“I was nervous the entire tournament because this is my third time trying, and I haven’t been close to making it to states,” Marcheret said. “I just wanted to come out today and perform, and I can be happy with how I played today.”
Despite being down 4-5 in the second set, Marcheret kept her focus on the next point. She turned to a simple but powerful reminder — a dampener on her racket with a small dot in the center.
“When I need to bring back my focus, I focus on that dot,” she said. “It’s a reminder that there are still points to come back.”
She couldn’t be more excited to cap off her senior season at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, starting Monday, Oct. 27.
“I feel like I deserve this,” Marcheret said. “I’m going to take a few days off to celebrate this and rest my ankle, and then, it’s back to work.”
Division sophomore Lilliana Chou defeated Manhasset senior Diane Duarte, 6-1, 6-1, earning third place in singles.
“I knew I had to be more confident and play more aggressively,” Chou said. “I did a better job of moving her, drop shotting, and I think I was overall just more consistent in that final match.”
Making it to the state championships was a goal Chou had set at the beginning of the season. Now, it’s become a reality.
“We all wrote down goals for the end of the season, and mine was to make it to the state championship,” Chou said. “Last year, I lost in the quarterfinals, and as an eighth-grader, I lost in the first round. It feels great to finally make it through.” All four singles semifinalists qualified for the state championship.
Nassau’s march to the state championship continued as both Port Washington’s doubles teams added their names to the list of qualifiers.
The second-seeded pair of sophomore Brianna Lewis and junior Evie Loewy defeated the top-seeded Syosset pair, Hannah Wang and Skylar Lin, 7-5, 6-0, to earn first place in the doubles tournament.
“Our strengths complement each other and our weaknesses complement each other, so we use that to our advantage,” Lewis said. “We started off the final game down, but were able to work together and build our energy to make a comeback.”
Viking teammates Christiana Kent and Shoriya Bhat-Bhandakar defeated Syosset’s Diya Varma and Selena Wang 6-2, 7-6 (4) to secure the third place in Nassau doubles.
“We’re really happy with how we played. We were dominant at the net,” Kent said. “We really tried to focus because we’ve really been working towards this together for the last two years.”
Wang and Lin will join the Vikings at the state championship.
“I think it’s really special, especially being able to go to the state championships all together,” Kent said. “It’s a huge accomplishment for all of us, and it’s even better we got to do it as a team.”
