Madison Lee had been here before.
But never quite like this.
The Great Neck South junior tennis star knew what it was to have the pressure of a county championship match on her shoulders; two years ago Lee and partner Kira Diaz were in that match and fell in the finals.
This time, Lee had a new partner—a very young new partner. Gabrielle Villegas just turned 12 in April, but the precocious seventh grader has already made a national name for herself in her age group: She’s the No.16 ranked player in America in the 12 and under division and No. 2 in the Eastern Region.
So, while in 2022 Lee was the rookie trying to battle nerves, this time, she was the experienced hand helping a much younger partner.
“I definitely had less nerves this time, and she didn’t seem nervous to me,” Lee said. “Sometimes I still feel like a freshman, but as we played the nerves went away.”
Those butterflies flew away quickly enough that Lee and Villegas emerged as Nassau County doubles champs.
The duo won three matches between Oct. 18-20 at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, defeating Roslyn’s Alex Krol and Chloe Gross, 6-3, 6-2 in the final to advance to the state tournament on Oct. 28-30 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
We had the grizzled veteran and the young stud who came out of nowhere,” said Great Neck South coach Andrew Tuomey with a chuckle. “Madison did a great job taking Gabby under her wing, and they really made a great team at counties.”
Villegas, a student at Great Neck South Middle School, said “I don’t really get that nervous.”
“It was really exciting to win and get the trophy,” she said. “I didn’t feel nervous but I did feel a little pressure this season because I didn’t want to let my team down.”
Villegas and Lee were the top two singles players this season for Great Neck South, with Villegas’ small stature not an impediment for her powerful groundstrokes.
“She puts her whole body into the shots, so even thought she’s super small, she hits the ball really hard,” Tuomey said. “She really plays fearless tennis, even if you look at her and think ‘how can this kid hit this hard?”
Lee said she was “super impressed” with Villegas’ game when the youngster first joined the team.
“The whole team was happy to have someone so good playing for us,” Lee said. “She’s competitive and really strong everywhere. She’s really good at the putaway volleys, and my consistency is from the baseline, so we make a good team.”
While Villegas and Lee will advance to the state tournament, the Port Washington girls’ team’s fantastic season came to an end on Tuesday. The Vikings advanced to play longtime nemesis Syosset in the Nassau large schools final, held at The Wheatley School.
The two teams had split their matches this season, with each winning a 4-3 decision, but on Tuesday, the Braves dominated.
Syosset won all three singles matches, and three of the four doubles points to grab a 6-1 win.
“We knew they would be tough; they outplayed us a little today,” Port coach Shane Helfner said. “But this was an amazing experience for our girls. We have such a very young team, and everyone in our conference knows we have almost everyone back next year. So we have a good window ahead of us.”
Indeed, while the recent past has been great (Port Washington was Long Island champs in 2022, losing in the state title match), the future does indeed look very bright. No. 1 singles player Brianna Lewis was just a freshman this year, and No. 2 Evie Loewy is a sophomore.
The Vikings lose only one regular starter from this year’s runner-up squad, senior Catherine Karman, with all four doubles teams returning intact, including Sienna McGuffin and Jamesy Hershman, who grabbed the Vikings’ lone match win at No. 3 doubles.
“We were confident but we always have next year,” McGuffin said.
Loewy and Karman finished third at the county tournament and also advanced to states.
