Sports

The Stuyvesant girls’ tennis team, the Lobsters, ended their season with a disappointing 4-1 loss to the Judges of Benjamin Cardozo High School in the city finals. The Lobsters had beaten the Judges in last year’s semifinals, but suffered a loss to a strong Midwood team in the finals. This year, Stuyvesant, seeded second, breezed past Forest Hills 5-0 in the quarterfinals and beat Midwood 3-2 in the semifinals, earning another chance to become city champions.

The Judges took an early lead with a win at second singles, where Cardozo freshman Leighann Sahagun defeated senior and co-captain Vanessa Charubhumi 6-2, 6-0. Charubhumi had been a very aggressive player throughout the early rounds of the playoffs, but hit an uncharacteristic amount of unforced errors while Sahagun hit many winners.

The Lobsters tied the match up with a win at first doubles, where junior Tiffany Wan and senior and co-captain Jenny Pikman defeated Cardozo freshman Alexa Cohen and senior Stefanie Smith. Wan and Pikman were consistent when they needed to be, but played aggressively at net, finishing points off early.

With this victory, Stuyvesant joined the ranks of Bayside and Townsend Harris as the only teams to win even a single match against the Judges.

Despite these efforts, Cardozo then went on to sweep the remaining matches. Senior and co-captain Jane Lin and junior Christine Yeoun lost their doubles match 6-2, 7-6. “We were over aggressive and not consistent at all,” Lin said.

Sophomore Bessie Rentzler lost her third singles match 6-3, 6-0. At first singles, Cardozo senior Jillian Santos took the first set 6-3 against junior Veronika Li. Santos then took a commanding 4-0 lead in the second set, but a hard-fought comeback by Li ended up earning her the set, 7-5. Nonetheless, Santos won the tiebreaking third set 6-1, forcing the Lobsters to settle for second place for the second consecutive year.

Although the city championship has consistently eluded them, the Lobsters are optimistic because only three starting seniors are graduating. Also, they finished the regular season undefeated with a 10-0 record. Four of the seven starters who helped them achieve this perfection will be returning next season. “We will have a very good team next year,” junior Tiffany Wan said. “It’s going to be hard because the seniors were very good players, but a lot of good players from other teams will be graduating.” Next year will definitely be another year of chasing the one thing this team has not been able to achieve: a city championship.