Big Red Tennis Squad Falls Short of Playoffs

In his first season leading Glen Cove High's boys' tennis team last spring, coach Chris MacDonald guided Big Red to a 5-7 record, just missing the playoffs. The season, however, was still marked as an improvement over years past.

MacDonald was hopeful Big Red would build on last year's success and make the playoffs this year, but he had a major dilemma to deal with during the season:  many of his players were involved in several extracurricular activities, causing some of the team's top players to miss action because of other important obligations.

As a result, Glen Cove finished the year at 6-8, good for a modest fifth place finish in conference 4A (only the first three teams make the postseason). While this may not have been the outcome the second-year coach desired, he noted that he was pleased with the team's effort this season. 

"We had a good year, but the students were involved in so many things," MacDonald explained. "We were forced to do without some kids at times.  The attitude we had was we're going to try as hard as we can with whoever is playing. We fought hard, and a lot of guys stepped up and filled in when they had to."

The fourth doubles team of Ricky Liang and Gorov Sodhi, recruits from the wrestling squad, surpassed expectations and finished with an impressive 11-3 record, making All-Conference. Miguel Vizarreta excelled on the singles side for Glen Cove as well.

Although Big Red didn't reach the playoffs, just like MacDonald had envisioned at the start of the campaign, he still stressed that the future will yield nothing but positive results for his club.

"I think we're getting kids who are getting a little more serious, and who are going to play over the summer," MacDonald said, who is a former All-American junior tennis player at Nassau Community College. "We had 25 kids on the roster this season and we were more focused. Things will get better."