Serving up seconds: FPC girls, Seabreeze boys are runners-up at Five Star tennis tourney

The Spruce Creek boys and girls teams swept the conference championships at the Florida Tennis Center.

  • By Michele Meyers
  • | 4:48 p.m. March 15, 2023
  • Ormond Beach Observer
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The Spruce Creek Hawks dominated the Florida Tennis Center courts at the Five Star Conference tennis tournament March 9-10.

Creek’s boys and girls teams scored 21 points each and took home both first-place trophies.

 The Flagler Palm Coast girls placed second with 13 points while the boys placed fourth with seven points. Seabreeze boys were runners-up with 10 points while the girls came in third with nine points.

The Spruce Creek boys won last year’s conference title, and the girls lost by one point. This year, the girls won by eight points.

 Hawks head coach Jeremy Davies said he believes his team has increased in strength and depth, especially in the doubles pairings, with the addition of freshmen Giselle Adekunle (No. 2) and Irina Tabacila (No. 3). They beat FPC’s Marina Carlisi and Tatiana Leontayva 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 2 doubles final. 

“I think we have a really good shot to go to states for both boys and girls,” he said. “I like our chances a lot to be able to make it to states and make a deep run at states as a team.”

FPC’s girls faced Creek in the Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 singles finals along with the Nos. 1 and 2 doubles finals. Coach Javier Bevacqua was missing his No. 2 player, Ania Martynuk, which forced his players to move up. He said the Bulldogs know it is all part of the game and do what they need to do to get the job done.

“Facing Spruce Creek is not a big deal for us,” he said. “We are in the same district. We play each other. We have a great friendship with one another — get along well with their coach. All the girls grew up playing with each other when they were younger. I know some schools might fear playing certain schools. We don’t. It’s not a big deal to us.”

The process that we started from my first day and will hopefully continue into the future, is going to be built on the same goal. It’s going to be built on the goal of people supporting people and players being there for each other—building more of a family.”  — Trishna Patel, Seabreeze tennis coach

Seabreeze’s Riya Arab advanced to the girls No. 1 singles final against Creek’s Kayla Wheeler, losing 6-2, 6-1.

 Seabreeze’s Finn Rasmussen (No. 3), Bryce Gornto (No. 4) and Ewan Noval (No. 5) advanced to the boys singles finals along with brothers Finn and Liam Rasmussen in the No. 2 doubles final. Last year, Mac Chiumento was the only Sandcrab to make it to the final round.

“Seabreeze was in five finals at the Five Star,” Sandcrabs coach Trishna Patel said. “We are trying to get our groove back. I think that we are starting to do it right now with the results here at Five Star, and hopefully we are going to peak at districts. That’s the goal.”

The Rasmussens are baseball players who had played tennis when they were young children, but recently got back into the sport. Eighteen months ago, they started playing tennis and helping maintain the courts and grounds at the Trails Racquet Club in Ormond Beach. Patel asked if they would help with her junior program, the Trailblazers, in exchange for training. They jumped on the opportunity.

“These guys have come up in 18 months, and now they’re contesting Spruce Creek,” she said. “They are in the Five Star Conference final against all these seasoned players. It’s amazing.”

Spruce Creek sophomore Zane Ensminger (No. 1) won the boys singles final — 6-1, 6-2, against University sophomore Daksh Talati — and the No. 1 doubles final with his older brother, Hayden Ensminger. The younger Ensminger is ranked third in the district in his age group by the United States Tennis Association.

“I think I have a lot of prospective collegiate players — especially on the girls side,” Davies said. “Zane, I think, is going to be the one. He’s got a real bright future. I think he’s got a shot at a singles state title, for sure.”

The conference wrapped up with a grueling No. 2 singles final between Hayden Ensminger and FPC freshman Aaron Lieberman. They battled for two sets, with the Creek senior finishing with a 7-5, 6-2 win.

“Those guys really competed,” FPC boys coach George Henry said. “It was a high level match. I’m impressed. I’m proud of his (Lieberman’s) fight. He fought yesterday in his match to get to the finals.”

The teams are over halfway through the season and are preparing for  district tournaments, which run April 10-15.

“The process that we started from my first day and will hopefully continue into the future is going to be built on the same goal,” Patel said. “It’s going to be built on the goal of people supporting people and players being there for each other — building more of a family.”

 

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