Friends Academy Tops Cold Spring Harbor in Girls Tennis Finals

By Priya Persaud

Last Wednesday, the Friends Academy girls’ tennis team won the Nassau County Small School Championship, defeating Cold Spring Harbor.

In a highly anticipated final, the Quakers of Friends Academy emerged triumphant against the Seahawks of Cold Spring Harbor in 5-0 victory at Eisenhower Park. The match featured three singles and two doubles games.

Friends Academy’s head coach, Owen Kassimir, said, “I am very excited. At the beginning of the season, I knew we had a strong team. We got off to a slow start as we were missing some of our top players early on, but we picked it up as the season went on, and I was happy with the progress the team showed.”

In the first singles game, Isabella Sha of Friends Academy went up against Nicolette Loeffler of Cold Spring Harbor. Sha emerged victorious by winning 6-2, 6-1.

Then, Teah Login won a victory at third singles with a score of 7-5, 6-2.

Finally, Skylar Cohen secured her team’s county title by winning her second singles game with a score of 6-2, 6-4.

“I lost to her last time, so I came out today and knew what I had to do to change up my game, and it worked out,” said Cohen. “When I saw the other two matches finish and knew we had one, I did get a bit nervous. But it just motivated me to want to win even more.”

Friends Academy then won the remaining two doubles games. A victory was brought to Friends by Taylor Overstrom and Rachel Na at first doubles; they had a score of 6-0, 4-6, 6-0.

A second doubles win was secured by Eva Sun and Erica Na by having a final score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.

“Cold Spring Harbor is a great team, and they beat us twice during the regular season, so I knew today was going to be tough. I’m happy we prevailed,” said head coach Kassimir.

Now, the Friends Academy will verse the winner of the Suffolk County Small School Championship for a Long Island title.