Marlboro’s sisters capture doubles title
Marlboro High’s Emma and Grace Messenger captured the doubles championship at the Section 9 girls tennis tournament becoming the firstever Dukes doubles tandem to win a sectional title.
Marlboro High’s Emma and Grace Messenger captured the doubles championship at the Section 9 girls tennis tournament becoming the firstever Dukes doubles tandem to win a sectional title.
The reigning threetime Mid-Hudson Athletic League champions won twice on the second day of the two-day event to reach the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament for the second time in three years. The state tournament is scheduled for Oct. 29-31 at Sound Shore Indoor Tennis on Long Island.
The sisters, who were sectional runners-up in 2014 before losing in last year’s quarterfinals, defeated Warwick’s Ava Ghobadian and Jackie Grundfast, 6-3, 6-2 in the final after sweeping Goshen’s Rebecca Andrews and Kelsey Reivers, 6-1, 6-0 in the semifinals.
The Messengers are the first MHAL doubles champs to win the sectional title in more than 30 years.
They reached the doubles semifinals with a couple of early-round victories.
The Messengers posted 6-2, 6-0 wins over Red Hook’s Julie Bemis and Dasha Latvis and Cornwall’s Marina Blumenschein and Meg Nielson to reach the semis.
In other early-round play, Spackenkill’s Sarah McCall and Cynthia Ma also made the quarterfinals, but lost as Isabelle Goings-Perrot and Riddhi Patel of Newburgh rallied for a 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 win.
Two first-round losers were MHAL champion Emily Savage of Wallkill and Kingston seventh-grader Lila Shih Freeman.
Savage fell 6-4, 6-2 to Cornwall’s Shirali Patel, while Freeman lost 6-1, 6-2 to second-seeded Sera Satkowski of Valley Central.
Saugerties’ Mehal Mitra, Natalie Meyer of New Paltz and Spackenkill’s Rachel Li all won in the first round.
Mitra had to battle back to squeeze out a 5-7,. 6-4, 7-5 triumph over Hanna Scali of James I. O’Neill. Mitra was blanked 6-0, 6-0 by defending Section 9 champion Jane Bockman of Goshen in the quarterfinals. Li lost to Valley Central’s Kortney McHale, while Meyer was downed by Satkowski. SINGLES First Round Quarterfinals Semifinals Consolation Quarterfinals