HARRISON — When COVID-19 hit, Keio, the Japanese private school in Purchase, scuttled its tennis program.
This fall, it decided to bring it back. Sakura Hino joined the team. She’d never heard of the Section 1 tournament.
Now, she’ll never forget it.
Hino capped an undefeated season in Section 1 play by defeating Scarsdale’s Giana Marks 6-4, 6-1, to win the Section 1 girls singles championship Wednesday at Harrison High School.
Hino, Marks and third-place finisher Daniella Rosenblit of Horace Greeley, who topped Pelham’s Katie McGovern, will represent the section at the state singles tournament, which is slated to run Oct. 28-30 at the USTA National Tennis Center in Queens.
Three doubles teams will also compete at states.
In Wednesday’s championship doubles match, Jenna Kleynerman and Katherine Shil of Byram Hills took down Scarsdale’s Kay Cottrell and Isabel Lin 6-3, 6-1.
Cottrell won the section doubles title last year with Emma Ha and placed second at states. Both doubles finalists qualified for states third-place team Michelle Rosenblitt and Allison Tsai of Horace Greeley, who defeated Greeley teammates Isla Gibb and Sadie McFadzen in the third-place match.
Hino makes Keio history
Hino left Harrison with a silver bowl, a plaque and a wide grin, already anticipating how the bowl would look in the school’s trophy showcase.
Hino, said she thought she didn’t have a chance of winning after looking at other players’ rankings after learning about the tournament. Keio’s program started in 1994.
“Everyone was so high (in the rankings). I’m so happy. I’m so surprised,” she said.
Hino said she believed had she played her normal style of tennis Wednesday she wouldn’t have been able to beat the lefty Marks, who she called “very strong.”
Instead of going for early winners, she bided her time during long rallies with Marks and then “hit to open court.”
As recently as 2022, Section 1 players won the girls singles and doubles titles, as well as team titles in both the large- and small-school divisions, adding to a decorated history for Section 1 girls tennis players.
“I want to win at states,” Hino said, before smiling and tempering that goal a bit to say she wants to win at least one match there. “Everyone will be good.”
Marks goes to states at singles for the first time.
The senior, who’ll play tennis next year for Minnesota’s Carleton College, has won the state large-school team tennis title with her Scarsdale teammates for the past three years.
And Scarsdale is again in the Section 1 team tournament, which gets underway Thursday, so she may have a chance to four-peat.
She plans to make the most of the opportunity, which she considers special.
Marks, who has played tennis since age 3, said the easy part of the game is being in shape to play. The difficult part is mental – maintaining focus on every single point and dealing with expectations and sometimes crowds.
But, despite all that, she expressed a simple goal for playing in the state championships, remarking, “I want to win.”
Kleynerman wants another state title after year hiatus
Kleynerman, returning from taking a year off from high school tennis, would like nothing more than to conclude her scholastic career with another win at states.
As a sophomore in 2022, she teamed with then-senior Chloe Bernstein to claim the state title.
This time, she’s the senior teamed with a sophomore in Schil.
The two played only one match together before entering the Section 1 tournament, then swept their five matches there.
Only one went to three sets.
“The first couple of rounds we saw as practice rounds. We built chemistry,” said Kleynerman, who’ll play for Division I Merrimack College in Connecticut next year.
She noted both she and Schil are “power players”. Schil added the two also move well on the court, which was clear during Wednesday’s match.
She agreed with her teammate the goal is gold in Queens.
Championship schedule
All matches at states will be played indoors at the USTA Tennis Center with singles matches starting at 8 a.m. Monday, Oct 28.
The state team competition is slated for Friday, Nov. 8 at the same location.
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That, though, will follow a regional team semifinals Oct. 24 or Oct. 25 (TBD) at Harrison between Section I and Section 4 with smaller schools playing at 3:30 p.m. and larger at 5 p.m.
The regional final will pit those winners against Section 9’s top large and small teams Monday, Nov. 3 at Goshen Sports Center.
Those matches will determine who’ll advance to the team state final four.
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, girls basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Section 1 girls tennis: Keio’s Hino singles champ, Byram Hills doubles
