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Light Rain East Meadow nets another title
Last spring, the East Meadow badminton team featured a county championship winning doubles pair in Alicia Gonzalez and Lilly Lin. This spring, Gonzalez and Lin both became singles players, but still played a key role in helping the Lady Jets produce an elite Nassau doubles duo.
Rachel Polansky and Stephanie Tavel took over as East Meadow’s top doubles team in 2016, and were able to take home a county title of their own for the school. According to their head coach, Patricia Burnside, Polansky and Tavel had a rather unique advantage on their path to becoming champions.
“All the time at the end of practices I would have Lilly and Alicia team up again and play Rachel and Stephanie in doubles,” Burnside said. “I’m sure that was a big factor in helping them get better and being able to challenge for the county championship the way they did.”
Polansky and Tavel’s All-County level seasons were just one of the highlights from what was quite the memorable year for the Lady Jets. The team finished with a 13-1 overall record, was undefeated in conference play, and won its conference for the second consecutive year.
During the regular season, East Meadow was a dominant team, winning seven games by a 7-0 final, and five games by a 6-1 mark. Ten different Lady Jets’ players were selected to the All-Conference team this spring. In order to qualify for the honor, players must win eight of their 12 matches.
Nikita Khosla was one of those players, finishing with an 11-3 record as East Meadow’s first singles player. She also came up large in the Lady Jets victory over Lynbrook in the opening round of the playoffs.
“Our win against Lynbrook ended up being a really special,” Burnside said. “Nikita had a match against an all-county player that day, and was able to beat her.”
Gonzalez and Lin also finished with 11-3 records as singles players, and impressed Burnside with their ability to adapt so quickly.
“Lilly and Alicia made the transition from doubles to singles really well,” she said, “That’s a tough move going from one to the other.”
Some other standout doubles performers for East Meadow included Hannah Arbuse, Alison Linquist, Nicole Giblin, Krutika Ganhi and Jen Urist.
This squad did not lack experience or leadership, as it featured eight seniors. Many of the team’s players had been a part of the program for multiple years, something that helped make Burnside’s job much easier this spring.
“Our senior players knew what to expect this year, and what I expected of them, and they just came to practice and did what they had to do,” Burnside said. “They also helped teach the younger players, so hopefully that will help us moving forward.”
After nailing down a postseason victory over the Lady Owls, East Meadow moved on to play No. 1 seeded Great Neck in the quarterfinals. The Lady Jets forced a competitive match, but ultimately came up short of moving on.
