Doubles crown for South Side

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Two years ago, South Side girls’ tennis coach Chris Colesanti came up with the idea of having his top two singles players compete as a doubles pair in the Nassau County High School Championships. That vision paid off.

Senior Julia Gentile and sophomore Lauren Zola outlasted 31 other pairs and qualified for this weekend’s state championships with their victory at the counties in Eisenhower Park on Oct. 13-14. Gentile and Zola, who made it to the quarterfinals in last year’s tourney, became the first South Side team to win the county title since Deana Davoudiasi and Rachel Shenker in 2010.

Next up is the New York State Championships in Latham, N.Y. from Oct. 26-29. “It’s really exciting,” Zola said. “[We were] congratulated over the announcements at school and I’m just glad to win it. It’s pretty cool.”

Both girls were already dominating the opposition on the court as singles players, with Gentile going 25-1 over the last two years and Zola posting a 20-5 mark during that span. That prompted Colesanti to combine their skills and form what would prove to be a dangerous doubles team.

“They’ve been the best two players on the team for the last two years by far,” Colesanti said. “They’re strengths and their skills are pretty equal, but they’re also different and complementary. Lauren has amazing ground strokes and a good serve and Julia has the speed and athleticism and a great net game.”

Gentile and Zola opened the tournament with a 10-4 victory over Roslyn’s Nicki Kenyon and Hannah Ginsberg. Gentile admitted to being a little tight at the start of the match and Zola was there to pick up her teammate and help the team win.

The girls bested Great Neck South’s Annie Dai and Samantha Zeller 6-4, 6-2 in the second round and then Hewlett’s Nicole Pinkus and Nila Katsman 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the semifinals, where their mettle would be tested. Gentile and Zola had 3-1 lead in the first set against Great Neck North’s Alina Lyakhov and Alyssa Ghassabian when their struggles suddenly began.

“We were beating ourselves more than they were beating us,” Gentile said. “We double-faulted a lot of times and there was a line call [that went against us] and I think we crumbled after that.”

But the girls were able to regroup and coasted the rest of the way with 6-1 wins in the second and third sets.

“It rolled right into the final,” Colesanti said. “When the pressure came off, I think they put it all together.”

With their ticket to states already punched, the girls had little trouble in the championship match and defeated Maddy Richmond and Nicolette Loeffler of Cold Spring Harbor 6-2, 6-3. The competition will be even stiffer at states, but Gentile feels that her and Zola can turn some heads there as well.

“I think that if we play our game and we don’t beat ourselves, then we can play with anyone up there,” Gentile said.