Fair Lawn Girls Tennis Drops Home Match, Begins State Tournament Thursday

One day before entering the state tournament as underdogs, Fair Lawn's girls tennis team got a sound warm-up against an undefeated rival from the Big North V division.

Fair Lawn (2-5) fell 4-1 at home to Ramapo (8-0) on Wednesday. On Thursday, the 14th-seeded Cutters travel to Morristown High School to face the third-seeded Colonials at 4 p.m. in a first-round state tournament match.

Cutters' coach Matt Markman doesn't think the matchup is as lopsided as the rankings might suggest.

"Over the years I've noticed that when you travel outside of Bergen County the competition tends to be weaker, so in retrospect a third seed [from outside the county] ends up playing more like a sixth or seventh," Markman said.

For Ramapo, Wednesday's win allowed them to bounce back emotionally from last weekend, when the Raiders' top three singles players all lost.

"I think the girls were anxious to put the memory of the county tournament on the backburner," Ramapo coach Kim Marchese said. "Now we that we have states on the horizon it's important to get that winning feel back as a group."

The Raiders accomplished that and then some by dominating the Cutters behind the strength of a number of solid performances.

First doubles pairing Kristen Pizzolo and Olivia Hartgers were the first Raiders to reach the winners circle with a straight set victory, 6-0, 6-0.

"We wanted to come out and play as aggressive as we could," Pizzolo said, with Hartgers jumping in to add, "We were able to string together a number of solid volleys and I think our consistency is what eventually wore them down."

Aggressiveness and consistency seemed to be the theme of the day for the Raiders, as they would go on to win the next two matches to seal the victory. Second and 3rd  singles players Katie Nerlino (6-0, 6-0) and Julia Friedberg (6-1, 6-0) both coasted to victory to give Ramapo the win.

Fair Lawn's Valerie Shklover won the 1st singles match by defeating fellow freshman phenom Lisa Jouravleva 6-4, 6-2. Shklover's only loss of the season came last weekend to Ramapo ace Amanda Muliawan in the county semifinals. However, she was denied a rematch as Muliawan sat out to rest.

"I have mixed feelings about her not playing," said Shklover. "On one hand you always want to play the best to prove you can compete at that level, but on the other hand if I played like I did today she probably would have beaten me."

While the Cutters are trying to advance in the state tournament Thursday,  the Raiders will be at home relaxing thanks to a first-round bye. Second-seeded Ramapo will await the winner of Paramus and West Milford, who they will host later next week.

"I feel good where the team's at right now," said an upbeat Marchese. "We have tremendous depth up and down the lineup and we'll be a tough out for any team we face."

Fair Lawn can definitely attest to that.

RESULTS

1st Singles:

Valerie Shklover (F) defeats Lisa Jouravleva (R) 6-4, 6-2

2nd Singles:

Katie Nerlino (R) defeats Shelley Cherkassky (F) 6-0, 6-0

3rd Singles:

Julia Friedberg (R) defeats Jessica Perchuk (F) 6-1, 6-0

1st Doubles:

Kristen Pizzolo & Olivia Hartgers (R) defeats Suzy Simkin & Samantha Altman (F) 6-0, 6-0

2nd Doubles:

Jackie Mahedy & Abbey Roberts (R) defeats Valerie Pavlou & Katerina Belincher 6-0, 6-1