Deja Vu for Half Hollow Hills Girls Tennis

In the fight for supremacy in Suffolk County girls' tennis, the Colts (18-1 overall) proved to be queens of the court, crowning themselves county champions with a 4.5-2.5 victory over crosstown rival (15-2 overall) Monday afternoon at Smithtown East.

For the Thunderbirds, the match stood as a chance for redemption, as last year saw them fall to the Colts en route to an earlier Suffolk County championship.

"You don't really need a special reason to want to win the county finals," said Half Hollow Hills East Head Coach Tom Depelteau. "I said to the girls beforehand: Do you need any motivational speech from me and they said no."

But on a cool and windy November afternoon, history repeated itself.

"It is two years in a row the same teams are playing together," said Half Hollow Hills East head coach Kim Langendorfer. "It's just a repeat of last year as far as the finals teams and result."

According to Langendorfer, it was a complete team victory.

"There was great play by all the girls; they really stepped up to the match," Langendorfer added. "My girls just really put it out there on the court 150 percent, and I was very proud of them."

Exceptional play came from second, third and fourth singles (Zenat Rashidzada, Malini Desai and Lauren Salzano, respectively), each of whom recorded wins for the Colts on the afternoon.  Samantha Elgort, Suffolk County's second ranked singles player, led the way for Thunderbirds with a win in top singles play.

In besting their cross-district rivals, West overcame the strategy implemented by East.

"We tried to structure our lineup to deal with what we thought would be their line-up," said Depelteau. "It just that we didn't play as well as they did. "The girls were not overly disappointed. They know we had a pretty successful run." 

What does this all mean? That the district's two high schools faced each other in the county championship in consecutive years reflects a strong tradition of tennis enthusiasts within the town.

"It is a community that enjoys tennis and promotes the sport in the community," Langerdorfer said.

"There has been a long run for both East and West, boys and girls," declared Depelteau. "There is a commitment to learning about tennis in our district…the young kids just keep popping up with tennis skills."

Any way you look at it, the future remains bright for both programs, as youth may benefit each for years to come.  Depelteau said that the Hills West team is fairly young, and his squad had another crop of what are now 7th, 8th and 9th graders ready to step into the varsity from the J.V. level.

"Both [Half Hollow Hills] West and [Half Hollow Hills] East try to encourage involvement at the middle school level, said Depelteau.  "In my junior varsity team they had seven 7th and 8th graders, and they had an undefeated season."

According to Depelteau, "this rivalry will be one of the big rivalries over the next two or three years again."

Half Hollow Hills West Boys Soccer begins Playoff Push:

With the Suffolk County boy's soccer playoff in full swing, the Hills West Colts (16-0 overall) set their sights on the East Islip Redmen (12-4-1 overall) Wednesday, following the Redmen's impressive 4-0 victory over their cross-town rivals, Hills East Thunderbirds.  

What do the Redmen have to look forward to? How about the modern-day version of David vs. Goliath.

Coming off a flawless season, the Colts tallied 64 goals (4 gl/gm) while only allowing five to score against them. This included 11 shutouts, and a 13-0 goals for-to-against ratio to begin the season.  

While the game is yet to be played out, a Colts loss may prove to be an upset of momentous proportions, as they seem to be a dominate force this season.