Tennis Briefs(3): Florida State High School Results, More

Teams, Individuals Crowned at 2015 Florida High School Tennis State Championships

Anna Bright

Freshman Anna Bright of West Boca High School was the lone player to win both singles and doubles overall titles at the 2015 Florida High School Tennis State Championships, held on April 13-17 at Sanlando Park (Altamonte Springs), Red Bug Lake Park (Casselberry), and Sylvan Lake Park (Sanford) in the Orlando area.

Here are the team and overall singles and doubles individual champions in Class 1A-4A play:

Class 4A Champions

Boys’ Team: Cypress Bay (Weston)
Girls’ Team: Cypress Bay (Weston)
Boys’ Overall Singles: Jose Andres Ortega (Miami Ferguson) d. Charlie Sullivan (Spanish River) Wo (inj.)
Boys’ Overall Doubles: Ninan Kumar/Will Smyrk (Winter Park) d. Jacq Hundley/Justin Sacks (Wellington) 6-1, 7-6(5)
Girls’ Overall Singles: Anna Bright (West Boca High) d. Clare McKee (Boca Raton High) 6-2, 2-6, 10-6
Girls’ Overall Doubles: Anna Bright/Eden Sela (West Boca High) d. Sibel Can/Shene Disbergen (Cypress Bay) 6-3, 2-6, 10-7

Notes: Anna Bright is a freshman at West Boca High. “I was so happy when I won,” Bright told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “I completely expected to be the state champion.” It was the first singles and doubles state tennis titles for West Boca High. Bright has been home schooled prior to her first year at West Boca.

Class 3A Champions

Boys’ Team: Wiregrass Ranch (Wesley Chapel)
Girls’ Team: Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton)
Boys’ Overall Singles: Agie Moreno (Wiregrass Ranch) d. Justin Hall (Armwood) by walkover (injury)
Boys’ Overall Doubles: Avery Davis/Colter Decoste (Jensen Beach) d. Harry Cacciatore/Grey Cacciatore (Gainesville High) 6-4, 7-6(1))
Girls’ Overall Singles: Ashley Bongart (Lakewood Ranch) d. Christi Woodson (Eau Gallie) 6-3, 6-3
Girls’ Overall Doubles: Sophie Adams/Michelle Adan-Pol (Terra Institute, Miami) d. Alyssa Mayo/Sophia Petrella (Naples) 6-3, 7-5

Notes: Second straight boys’ team title for Wiregrass Ranch. Lakewood Ranch girls (2012 runners-up) win their school’s first state tennis title. The Girls’ Overall Singles winner Bongart is headed to the University of Tennessee next year.

Class 2A Champions

Boys’ Team: American Heritage (Plantation)
Girls’ Team: Pine Crest (Ft. Lauderdale)
Boys’ Overall Singles: Albert Go (Merritt Island) d. Jordan Skalet (Plantation) 6-3, 3-6, 10-7
Boys’ Overall Doubles: Zachary Ebenfeld/Jordan Skalet (American Heritage) d. Albert Go/Noah Rawls (Merritt Island) 6-4, 6-2
Girls’ Overall Singles: Kristina Zieglar (Port Orange Atlantic) d. Katherine Sidor (Rockledge) 6-0, 6-0
Girls’ Overall Doubles: Emily Sidor/Katherine Sidor (Rockledge) d. Julieta Dalmau/Lindy Lyons (Gulliver Prep) 6-3, 6-2

Notes: Kristina Zieglar is a freshman and did not drop a game in the Girls’ Overall Singles final, also going undefeated during the season. The Pine Crest girls defeated the 2014 state champions Gulliver Prep 4-1 in their regional final.

Class 1A Champions

Boys’ Team: Sagemont (Weston) / St. Stephen’s Episcopal (Bradenton) — tie
Girls’ Team: American Heritage-Delray
Boys’ Overall Singles: Peter Litsky (Shorecrest) d. Christopher Ephron (Pensacola Catholic) 6-3, 6-1
Boys’ Overall Doubles: Hunter Robbins/Joachim Samson (American Heritage-Delray) d. Christopher Ephron/Danny Sullivan (Pensacola Catholic) Wo (ill)
Girls’ Overall Singles: M’Balia Bangoura (Out of Doors School) d. Angelica Blake (American Heritage-Delray) 6-0, 6-2
Girls’ Overall Doubles: Daniella Moreno/Anna Waller (Academy at the Lakes) d. Angelica Blake/Melissa Sakar (American Heritage-Delray) 6-3, 6-1

Notes: The girls tandem of Moreno/Waller win the first state championship for Academy at the Lakes, a private school in Land O’ Lakes, Fla. The Boys’ Overall Singles champ Litsky, a junior, is headed to Brown University. For Sagemont it is the third boys’ title in four years.

For more info or results go to www.fhsaa.org/sports/tennis.

4 Florida Jrs. Selected for USTA Player Development Camp

Four Florida tennis players are among 11 age 14-16 year players invited to participate in this week’s USTA Boys & Girls Player Development Camps in Boca Raton, Fla. The boys camp will be held April 20-24, 2015, and the girls April 21-25 at the USTA Player Development National Training Center.

Florida players in attendance with their personal coaches:

Russell Benkaim, Osprey; Personal coach: Tom Whitten
Steven Sun, Boca Raton; Personal coach: Andres Pedroso
Adam Neff, Bradenton; Personal coach: Lance Luciani
Emma DeCoste, Stuart; Personal coach: Scott Decoste

Other players in attendance will be Roscoe Bellamy (Pacific Palisades, Calif.), Keenan Mayo (Roseville, Calif.), Brian Shi (Jericho, N.Y.), Ann Li (Devon, Penn.), Dalayna Hewitt (Pepper Pike, Ohio), Kacie Harvey (Braintree, Mass.), and Madeline Meredith (Birmingham, Ala.).

The USTA conducts various camps throughout the year. Players receive training and coaching from the USTA National Coaching Staff as well as from guest coaches, designed to inspire, motivate and assist players in reaching their highest level. Player activities include drilling and match play, as well as on-court and off-court conditioning.

https://twitter.com/USTA_PD/status/590168582413246464

For more info go to www.usta.com/About-USTA/Player-Development/Player-Services/Player-Development-Camps.

Gainesville Tennis Assoc. Hosts No-Nukes Event, USTA Play Day

The Gainesville Area Community Tennis Association “Hit Away the Nukes” on April 18, 2015 when the USTA Florida Community Tennis Association teamed with the Gainesville-based River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding and Eli Meyer Studio to sponsor a free tennis event to support the Global Wave 2015 Initiative (www.globalwave2015.org) at the Westside Park tennis facility in Gainesville, Fla.

“This event supported the worldwide effort to bring attention to the need for elimination of all nuclear weapons,” said one of the organizers, local junior tennis coordinator Anne Koterba. “The Global Wave involves simple public actions in cities around the world to ‘wave’ goodbye to nuclear weapons.”

The event was also one of many efforts around the world participating in the celebration of The International Day of

Sport for Development and Peace on April 6.

“The video taken at our local event will be shown in front of all the world leaders attending the U.N. meetings,” Koterba said. “We hit a total of 16,000 tennis balls, each ball symbolizing one of the 16,000 nuclear weapons still in existence in the world today.”

Addison Staples, GACTA executive director, said the organization sponsored the unique community tennis event in support of Global Wave 2015 because “the platform and power of sport can serve as a voice to larger social issues that can be leveraged in bringing awareness to important topics such as peace.”

The day included a free USTA Play Day for junior players which transitioned later in the day into a community tennis event.

For more info go to:

Global Wave 2015 — www.globalwave2015.org
Gainesville Area Community Tennis Association — www.gainesvilletennis.org