It was said last week that East Hampton High’s boys tennis team would be very strong, and that prediction still holds despite the fact that Kevin McConville’s charges lost 6-1 at top-ranked Ward Melville in a mandatory nonleaguer on March 21.
Ten-game pro sets were played because, said McConville, “it took three hours to get there because of a brush fire off the L.I.E.”
Ward Melville’s top two — Harsith Pennabadi and Shashank Pennabadi — whose Universal Tennis Ratings are in the 9.0 range, were indeed too strong, East Hampton’s coach acknowledged. They won easily. Harsith defeated Bonac’s number-one, Max Astilean, who has an 8.5 Universal Tennis Rating, 10-2, and Shashank shut out Cameron Mitchell 10-0. The other singles matches were close, Jagger Cohen losing 10-9 at three and Kiefer Mitchell losing 10-8 at four. In doubles, Jesse
Cohen and Chris Pilarski won 11-9 at three, while the Coopers, Nick and Henry, and Armando Rangel and Miguel Garcia lost at first and second doubles — 10-4 in the Coopers’ case and 10-3 in Rangel and Garcia’s.
The team was to have played another mandatory nonleaguer with Bayport-Blue Point here last Thursday, but it was rained out.
In other high school sports, Vinny Alversa, the baseball coach, said a scrimmage here Friday with Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School went well, East Hampton winning “by a score of 8 or 9-0.”
The girls flag football team debuted at William Floyd that day, losing 31-13. Jonathan Augi, the first-year team’s coach, said in an email, “Although we didn’t win, the team played very well. It was close until the final few minutes. The girls executed the designed plays, and played their hearts out. It was a very good learning experience for everyone. The difference was a few missed flags on defense, so we’ll be working on that this week in practice.”
Crystal Winter, an East Hampton High and New York University graduate who is on the national women’s flag football team, has been at some of the recent practice sessions. “It’s been nice to have her there,” said Augi. “She’s been urging the players to continue playing the sport after high school.”
Four of East Hampton’s teams are to play at home today, the boys tennis and boys track teams at 4, and the baseball and softball teams at 4:30.