The start wasn’t pretty. The finish was picture perfect. Syosset boys tennis began the defense of it's large school state championship in less than overwhelming fashion.
There was an opening day loss to singles-strong Herricks. And 12 days later it fell again, this time to a Roslyn team so formidable from top to bottom that it became the team to beat in Nassau County. However every season has an arc and Syosset’s has bent upward since that second loss.
It won second-half rematches with Herricks and Roslyn and, Wednesday, the arc reached its highest point yet with them hoisting the county's large schools championship trophy once again after a 5-2 win over Roslyn at Hofstra. “We lost enough top players that this felt like a completely different team, but it was still deep,” Syosset coach Shai Fisher said. “It took much longer for us to sort out who would play where in our lineup and the players bought into the idea of casting individuality aside.
It’s a team and it shouldn’t matter your spot or your partner.” “We lost 4-3 to Roslyn [on April 16] and we felt like almost every match could have gone either way,” senior Spencer Keschner said. “We were intent on not losing again and coach Fisher helped us identify our weaknesses and fix them.
” Syosset (15-2) has won seven of the past nine county titles. It will meet Suffolk champion Commack for the Long Island championship and a trip to the state semifinals at the National Tennis Center in Queens on Monday at.
