Glen Cove nets a banner

With still one match remaining on its schedule, the Glen Cove Big Red tennis team has already secured the needed credentials to call itself conference champions.

Sitting at 12-1 on the year in Conference 3A, the Big Red collective has come together to pull out a few close matches and even make some look relatively easy. The secret to the success: senior experience.

“We have a whole lot of seniors that have been around for a bunch of years and have experience,” head coach Chris MacDonald said.

Each of Glen Cove’s singles players are all seniors with ample time playing varsity tennis under MacDonald and know the program and what is expected of them.

No. 1 Will Casale, has faced the top singles competitors all season long and has only succumbed to a handful of losses. On May 2, the only team that had blemished Glen Cove’s impressive record, East Meadow, returned to face Glen Cove again. This time, Casale led the charge for the Big Red defeating Johnny McGrath 6-2, 6-1.

At second singles, Ryan Greenfield has had a highlight of a season, securing a 9-1 record and coming in clutch in a big matchup with Oyster Bay. “Greenfield won the match for us at Oyster Bay,” MacDonald said bluntly. “If he lost, it would have opened up the opportunity for Oyster Bay to take it from us.”

Greenfield beat the Baymen’s Michael Biggiani 6-4, 6-2 to take the match for the Big Red.

At third singles, Brandon Kolonovic has also been impressive, bringing along key senior experience to this singles trio. Despite ample varsity playing time, both Kolonovic and Greenfield had never played tennis until picking up a racquet the first day of varsity practice in ninth grade.

Ninth graders making a huge difference for the Big Red right now are Alan Gansky and Luciano Tuo at first doubles. This freshmen pairing, like Greenfield at singles, has only one loss on the season and is a revelation for MacDonald at the 1st doubles position at such a young age. “They play great together and played great when winning our first Bethpage matchup,” MacDonald said.

The second doubles tandem of Ze Machaca and Jelson Bonilla are soccer transplants that really bring their familiarity with one another and similar athleticism to the court. Third doubles Matthew Tran and John Dong, along with the fourth pairing, Orton Ip and Christopher Williams, all have played important roles throughout. 

Glen Cove is looking to cultivate further talent in the pipeline, expanding on its first annual youth tennis program just a year ago. “Last year we had third to fifth graders and about 50 kids. This year we will have second to sixth and will cap it at 100,” MacDonald said.

With MacDonald realizing the potential of this team, he was sure to tell his players that after their first loss in just the fifth match of the season, that they could control their own destiny.

“I told them ‘Hey, if we win out from here we can control everything’ and we worked hard enough to be able to do that,” MacDonald said. Upon going into the playoffs, MacDonald just has one message. “Believe that you can do it.”