The girls’ fall high school tennis season on Long Island featured a record number of JV and varsity teams organizing and participating in fundraising and community service events, supporting causes including multiple sclerosis (MS) awareness and breast cancer research.

Continuing a longstanding tradition, several Nassau County teams wore pink in October for breast cancer awareness. They were:

Farmingdale (coached by George Golden)

Malverne/East Rockaway (coached by Pat Ward)

Herricks (coached by Joy Solomon)

Manhasset (coached by Eileen Cuneo)

Cold Spring Harbor (coached by Melissa McLees)

Massapequa (coached by Mike Pavlides)

Mepham’s JV and varsity teams (coached by Kerri Latuso) gripped their racquets with pink over grips during October. 

Elsewhere, three Nassau teams held MS fundraisers. Plainview-Kennedy (Coach Neil Lasher) held a student/adult fundraiser event to benefit the MS fund in honor of Mindy Alpert from Great Neck North. In addition, the Lynbrook Owls hosted Massapequa at an MS awareness match. Both teams wore orange, the official color for MS Awareness. Lynbrook’s coach, Shari Glickman, purchased special t-shirts for the match (pictured above) and provided all the players with orange bracelets and bandanas.  The team also held a bake sale to raise donations. 

Further East, the Suffolk County Tennis Coaches Association (SCTCA) held its annual “Play for PINK” fundraiser, coordinated by Bob Davis (coach at Harborfields), Bruce Moodnick (Director of Tennis for the Hamlet Golf & Country Club and coach at Cold Spring Harbor) and Joe Arias (SCTCA President and coach at the Stony Brook School). The tournament took place at the Hamlet in Commack and featured a round-robin doubles tournament to raise money for the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation Breast Health Center. The event brought together 81 Suffolk County girls doubles teams and raised $700.

Varsity teams from the following high schools participated: Cold Spring Harbor, Commack, Connetquot, Half Hollow Hills East, Harborfields, Huntington, Patchogue-Medford, Ross School, Sayville, Smithtown East, West Islip and Westhampton. Junior varsity teams from Half Hollow Hills East and Harborfields also participated. The doubles team of Nicolette Loeffler (Cold Spring Harbor) & Kady Tannenbaum (Commack) won, while Lauren Schiraldi & Anya Konopka of Smithtown East were runners-up.

Did we miss a team? If your Fall 2019 girls’ high school tennis team held a community service event or fundraiser during the season, please email the details, including school, coach’s name and a high-resolution, horizontally-oriented photo to ustaonlongisland@gmail.com and we’ll make sure to include the news.