Cold Spring Harbor's Levine takes 2nd at states

Cold Spring Harbor's Josh Levine and Garden City's Zach Morris, Long Island's top two singles players, sat quietly at a table in the shadow of Arthur Ashe Stadium Saturday morning at the National Tennis Center in Flushing.

Both players were resting up before final matches of the day at the NYSPHSAA state tennis championships, though not exactly the matches they had originally hoped to be in. Morris had been bounced from the main draw in the first round by Eric Halpern of Blind Brook. He fought his way through the back draw to earn a berth in the singles consolation final.

Moments earlier, in what proved to be the public school final, top-seeded Jeremy Court (New Rochelle) came from behind to defeat Levine 7-5, 6-2. A few courts away, Halpern lost to Quinton Vega of Beacon, a PSAL school not eligible for the public title, so Levine would take on Halpern with second place on the line.

"I gave him some tips," Morris said. "He's got this."

But Levine dropped the first two games, prompting a quick visit for some words of advice from his coach.

"I told him to relax and put this guy away," CSH coach Paul Poschman said.

The hints and tips certainly helped, but what happened next was all Levine. Aided by remarkable consistency and a wicked backhand, Levine won six straight games and went on to win the silver medal 6-2, 6-4. Not too bad for a sophomore making his first appearance at states.

A few minutes later Morris, a junior making his third appearance at states, rallied to defeat Clinton's Jake Crawford 4-6, 6-3 (10-4) and earn the consolation singles title.

Two Nassau doubles teams also played in the day's final matches. Farmingdale's Ignacio Casali and Brendan Henry had been itching for a rematch with Long Beach's Matt Barry and Eric Rubin ever since the eventual county champs knocked them out of the Nassau County semifinals.

They got their chance Saturday, in the third place game. Both teams dropped tight semifinal matches. Farmingdale was edged 7-6 (5), 7-5 by Kyle Rosen and Jordan Kauffman of Byram Hills. Long Beach fell to Ben Fife and Austin Kaplan of Scarsdale, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

"We weren't focused," Rubin said.

Added Barry: "We thought we were gonna win it."

Farmingdale echoed their disappointment.

"We were upset but now we have to go play another game," Casali said. "We've been thinking about this match since the tournament started. We're looking forward to playing them."

Some friendly trash talk was exchanged before the match, apparently carried over from the night before.

But, as Henry added: "We were hoping this would be in the finals."

Barry and Rubin triumphed again, taking down the Farmingdale duo 6-3, 6-2 to claim the bronze medal.

"This was fun," Rubin said. "We're gonna do it again next year."

As for the Dalers, they'll take solace in Farmingdale's Scholar Athlete Award. The entire team's overall 99.549 grade point average ranked No. 1 of all tennis teams in New York State.