Chaminade doubles up to win CHSAA title

Chaminade’s Flyers cruised into the CHSAA boys title match against St. Anthony’s this past week. Winners of five straight matches, Chaminade was looking to unseat the two-time defending champion.

Chaminade needed overdrive to win this one, having lost all three singles matches.But the Flyers evened things by sweeping the first three doubles. The team title went down to the final doubles match.

John Otto and Luca Mucciardi got the job done defeating Kieran Weiss and Johnny Shatinsky in an exciting match, winning, 6-4, 5-7, 10-7.

The third set was a 10-point tiebreaker as Chaminade’s 4-3 win earned the CHSAA championship.

"The victory is a testimony to the depth of our squad this year," said Chaminade coach Daniel Petruccio. "We were missing our second singles player and one of our best doubles teams, but due to the depth of our roster, we were still able to win all four doubles matches."

In the individual CHSAA tournament, St. Anthony’s Jeffrey Rosario defeated Chaminade’s Colin Liotta, 6-0, 6-4 for the singles crown.

In an all-Chaminade doubles final, James and Luke Salerno defeated Otto and George Londos, 7-5, 6-4.

"It’s a very friendly match and it wasn’t that intense because they were both happy to be in the final knowing a Flyers duo would be the champion," Petruccio said. "It was played on our practice court at the school and well done."

Youth be served

The Commack and Half Hollow Hills East boys match came down to second singles where Commack eighth-grader Eric Benderly was equal to the task.

Commack had dropped the first, third and fourth singles butwon all three doubles matches. Benderly needed to win for the Cougars to remain undefeated in Suffolk Conference I.

Benderly lost the first set, 6-4, but won the second set, 6-3. That set up a winner take all set with the Thunderbirds’ Krithik Madisetty.

Players from both teams rimmed the court and shouted encouragement in a playoff-like atmosphere. Benderly edged Madisetty, 6-4, which moved Commack to 9-0 this season and dropped Hills East to 5-2.

"My teammates and coach supporting me helped build my confidence to pull out the clutch win," Benderly said.

Commack coach James Delevante said that in his four years of working with the team, all of their Suffolk losses had come to Half Hollow Hills East.

"This was definitely the biggest match of Eric’s young tennis career," Delevante said. "He stayed focused and handled the big moments really well. It was one of the best wins our team has ever had."

LIC set to go

The details for the Long Island boys team tennis championship have been worked out. The LIC is scheduled to be played at Eisenhower Park at 4 p.m. on June 17.

Suffolk announced it will hold a 16-team tournament that will commence with round one on June 14. The Suffolk tournament will wrap with the county championship to be played at the higher seed on June 17.