Lady Rams tennis loses match to Mount Vernon 3-2
October 2, 2024 at 10:22 p.m.
It was a tennis match with a lot of flare, a game within a game, and it drew a standing room only crowd around the Port Chester High School tennis courts Monday (9/30).
The match featured the Port Chester Lady Rams against Mount Vernon, two schools not usually associated with tennis.
And for those keeping score, Mount Vernon won 3-2, the second time the Mount had beaten the Lady Rams by that score this fall season.
Which is odd because Port Chester's new head coach Santos Avila maintains the Lady Rams won.
How could that be?
The winning logic
"It depends on how you define win," Avila said. "And for me it is a win for Port Chester because the Lady Rams are playing the game even though tennis isn't part of their heritage, making progress as up-and-coming tennis players learning to play the game the right way while believing in themselves, their coaches and their program and working hard, incredibly hard, to build a winning tennis program while leaving behind them a legacy, a tennis culture, a belief that Port Chester belongs on the same court as those born into more privilege and seem more likely to excel in an upscale sport."
That was what made the match more special.
No frills blue-collar tennis
Because neither Port Chester nor Mount Vernon players are to the racquet born.
But they are playing the game. And playing it well, albeit in a no-frills kind of blue-collar way.
As a basic rule of thumb, the serves aren't polished, the backhands erratic, the forehands more stickball than polished and the basic moves aren't country club-style smooth because they are not a product of expensive lessons from an early age.
Senior Crystal Monzon reaches up to return a ball during an exhibition match with East Ramapo on Sept. 19.By Joseph DeCarlo
But none of that matters. Because the girls are playing competitive tennis on a basic high school level. And every game they play helps level the playing field even more for future generations. And that represents quite an accomplishment as evidenced by the turnout rooting them on.
The all-senior Lady Rams
In fact, the viewing area beyond the picket fence-enclosed courts was filled with family and friends because this was a very special day, the homecoming game for the varsity tennis Lady Rams, an all-senior team comprised of 11 players of varying degrees of skill and experience.
The three co-captains, Fatima Coyt, Brooke Federice and Marisabel Rodriguez, have been playing together for years now and are probably the Lady Rams’ best players, their top three singles players with Rodriguez, Coyt and Federice playing first, second and third singles respectively.
And on this day at least, Federice is the only one who won her match, just as Lucia Giordano and Barbara Martinez were the only doubles team to beat their Mount Vernon counterparts.
But what really mattered was how well the Lady Rams played as a team built around Journey Adamson, Vanessa Caceres, Taryn DeCrescenzo, Kenia Gomez, Crystal Monzon and Keyla Morel.
And they were and are all winners just by being on the tennis courts.
The kid from the Bronx
As is their head coach, Avila, the largely self-taught kid from University Heights in the Bronx, an area near Yankee Stadium not exactly known for its tennis courts, who learned the game mostly in New York City-run public tennis programs after a teacher turned him onto the game in the fifth grade and he took it from there. He watched the U.S. Open and vowed to learn how to play the game the right way. And did. In college and beyond.
And now, as a guidance counselor in the Port Chester School District, he is paying it forward as the Lady Rams’ head tennis coach, teaching the girls the tennis ABCs and then some. Until it becomes almost second nature to turn sideways, racquet back, eye on the ball, follow the ball into the sweet spot of the racquet, swing and then follow through on contact. After all that happens as naturally as breathing, then get on your toes and be ready for the return and anything else that comes next.
What's coming up
All of which helps explain why there was such a large turnout for the homecoming game. And why so many underclassmen were in the stands soaking up the atmosphere because they will be part of the varsity program next year. And why the Lady Rams are looking to add a real W to their record when they play Haldane at home in their next game Tuesday (10/8) at 4:30 p.m.
No matter what happens, win or lose, the Lady Rams tennis team is a winner just by existing and playing the game as it should be played.
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