Bayport-Blue Point boys tennis wins Long Island small schools championship
The Bayport-Blue Point boys tennis team poses after winning the Long Island boys small schools team tennis final at Syosset on Thursday, May 28, 2026. Credit: David Meisenholder
Bayport-Blue Point boys tennis had its backs against the wall.
With the Phantoms trailing 2-0 in the match, Wheatley’s first doubles team stood one match point away from ending Bayport-Blue Point’s perfect season and Long Island title hopes.
Trailing 5-4 in the second set, Bayport-Blue Point's Nick Byman and Aidan Apicella fought back to win the set in a tiebreak, 7-6 (5).
“I just let my teammate know that we’d be good,” Byman said. “We just focused on one point at a time.”
As other matches wrapped up, the overall match score became tied at 2-2. In the third set, Byman and Apicella led 5-3 before Byman won the final point, dropped his racket and was swarmed by his teammates.
“I knew if I stayed calm and kept working with my teammate, we would eventually get the point, and it came right there and I put it away,” Byman said. “It was just a surreal feeling to win the Long Island championship.”
Bayport-Blue Point defeated Wheatley, 3-2, to capture the Long Island small schools championship at Syosset High School on Thursday.
The Phantoms (16-0) advanced to the state semifinals June 5 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens.
“These kids are battle-tested,” Bayport-Blue Point coach John Selvaggio said. “We’ve had a lot of competition this season and they’ve done nothing but prove themselves time and time again. Whether it’s on the court or off, the adversity has only made us stronger.”
Wheatley’s Saje Menon defeated Bayport-Blue Point’s Luke Jenson, 6-0, 6-0, at first singles, while Wheatley third doubles team of Max Greenman and Spencer Edelstein won 6-3, 6-4 to give Wheatley (14-3) a 2-0 advantage.
Before Byman and Apicella’s heroics, Bayport-Blue Point’s second doubles team of Declan Schug and Dom Linzie defeated Wheatley’s Michael Sethi and Noah Gee, 6-4, 6-1.
Bayport-Blue Point second singles player Eric Swinkin won in dramatic fashion, defeating Liel Agajan, 6-4, 7-6 (3). That set up a winner-take-all third set at first doubles, where Byman and Apicella handled the rest against Wheatley’s Julian Ostrow and Chase Yoon.
“Me and Nick have been playing together for three years,” Apicella said. “The chemistry has been there all along and we finally closed it out together. We proved everyone wrong today and it feels wonderful.”
This marks Bayport-Blue Point’s first Long Island title in boys tennis.
“This group has been with me since elementary school,” Selvaggio said. “They went to our camps as little kids, now they teach at our camps. None of them are out there getting professional instruction. They are just out there having fun and that’s the recipe for success.”
