Garnets Top Panthers Despite Buyuk’s Record-Setting Play

The Rye High tennis team traveled to Rye Neck High School September 16 to take on the Panthers and their extraordinary No.1 singles player, ninth-grader Ekim Buyuk. Extending her unscored-upon streak to 37 straight games, Buyuk defeated Casey Berger 6-0, 6-0.

By Mitch Silver

Turning the tables, the Garnets were winners of the top two doubles matches, as Jessica Jahnke and Claire Pfister bageled Brittany Brescia and Madden Edwards, and the Molly Jordan-Emma Jennings duo defeated Kayla Guagnini and Carissa Fernandez by the same 6-0, 6-0 score.

Rye’s Olivia Singer looked strong at third singles, dispatching Sage Reisner 6-2, 6-1. The Garnets’ deciding point came from their third doubles team of Sarah Keuleers and Alanna Morque, 6-3, 7-6 winners over Alexandra Tartaglia and Sara Wright. One match was suspended due to darkness, with Paola Peraza and Megan Rogers leading the Rye Neck team of Grace Sunstrom and Alyssa Vinzons, 6-4, 6-6.

The epic duel of the day took place between Rye Neck’s Diana King and Rye’s Ali Sims at No. 2 singles. After dropping the first set 1-6, King came back in an hour-long second set, 6-4. Then it was two young, tall, powerful girls slugging it out in the gloaming in a series of 20-stroke points. Sims was up early in the third set but King came back to knot everything at 6-all and force a tiebreak. Not just the singles matches, but the doubles matches that followed on the two adjacent courts were also through by the time King – Rye Neck’s second standout ninth-grader – had prevailed for a 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) victory.

Rye coach Tony Campbell and Rye Neck’s Mark Canno hurried on court to congratulate their charges just before the sun went down for good.
The win kept the Garnets undefeated at 3-0, while Rye Neck, jumping two classifications to play with bigger schools this year, is 2-4.

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