Lady Phantoms Defeat Longwood 5-2 in League Match

The Bayport-Blue Point Varsity girls tennis team was led by Laura Torsiello in first singles on its way to a 5-2 victory over Longwood on Wednesday evening.

Torsiello found herself in a seesaw battle in the first set of her match with Longwood's Sarah Dionisio, which went all the way to a tiebreaker with volleys that seemingly lasted forever. Torsiello finally came through in the first set 7-6 (7-2) and then won the second set 6-4 for the victory.

"That's always a battle," head coach Keith Scharfschwerdt said. "She's [Torsiello] probably the number one seed in our division singles wise, and I think Sarah's probably the number two."

The Lady Phantoms swept all four singles matches on their way to victory. Fiona Stickney defeated Sarah Shrek 6-4, 6-3 in second doubles.

"Fiona's really coming into her own as a singles player and is really learning the game," Scharfschwerdt said. "She's being consistent and is on a nice winning streak."

Taylor Whitehouse defeated Natasha Ghatta 6-3, 6-0 in third singles while Daley Dicorcia won her fourth singles match 6-2, 6-3.

"Taylor's a consistent player," Scharfschwerdt said. "She won't blow the ball by you but she's very consistent and frustrating to play against for the other schools."

The coach also emphasized Daley's skills, "(Daley's) a player that's really come a long way. She played third doubles last year and she stepped up in the offseason and has done a really nice job in fourth singles this year," he said.

In doubles competition, the Lady Phantoms managed to win first doubles, but lost two close matches in second and third doubles. For first doubles, Gen Stickney and Emily Morgenbesser defeated Longwood's Danielle Gropp and Evanna Remirez, 7-5, 6-2.

"When they're [Stickney and Morgenbesser] on, they're on," the coach said. "Gen's one of the better doubles players in the division and Emily's great in the back."

Lexie Lessing and Sarah Mardovich lost second doubles, 5-7, 4-6, while Katie Vanderbeck and Anmal Jaswal lost third doubles, 5-7, 0-6.

"Lexie and Sarah played a good match but didn't pull through," Scharfschwerdt said, noting they faced a very strong second doubles team. "It was a stronger team than I thought they'd put out there," he said, "We lost third doubles in a close tough first set. They were a couple points away from taking them in that first set but then things kind of fell apart for them in the second set."

The Lady Phantoms return to action on Friday, Oct. 8 when they go on the road to face Patchogue-Medford.

Last time we played the Phantoms played the Patchogue-Medford Raiders it was 3-4 in a close loss, the coach noted. "So hopefully we can get that one more match this time and get them either 4-3 or 5-2," Scharfschwerdt said. "We're playing our best tennis at the end of the season which is a good thing. From top to bottom we're playing pretty well right now."