OLD TAPPAN — Having made it to the quarterfinals as a freshman and the semifinals as a sophomore, Alex Mircea was set on making sure that this season, she finished the job in the Bergen County girls tennis tournament.
But Mahwah’s Alyssa Baldi certainly was not going to make it easy on her.
Baldi used her uncanny combination of technique and speed to give Mircea a run for her money, but the Glen Rock junior prevailed in the first-singles final Sunday at Old Tappan High School, 6-4, 6-2.
“I came in really wanting to win the entire thing this year because I’d come so close before,” Mircea said.
“I am grateful that I had a good draw and that I got to play Alyssa in the final, because she put up a really good fight. She hits the ball really low and you have to get down to hit the ball. She really plays with your head, which obviously was a factor.
“I wish there were two winners, so that she could have won too, because she played great today.”
Firmly established as one of Bergen County’s top players, Mircea led Glen Rock to a top five finish in the small-school division of the tournament, but Pascack Hills ruled the day overall.
The Cowgirls took home the small-school team title by a point over Dwight-Englewood, doing so in dramatic fashion in the final match of the bracket. There, in third-singles play, Caroline Lerche defeated the Bulldogs’ Sofia Cox, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, to take home not only an individual championship, but clinch the team competition for her team as well.
Her second-singles teammate, Julia Steiner, was also an integral part of Pascack Hills’ win, coming up big in crunch time against high-quality competition. After a win over Leonia’s Jessica Reich in the semifinals, Steiner defeated Mahwah’s Tori May, 6-3, 7-5, to take home a championship of her own.
Saddle River Day’s Jana Fugel and Nikki Westerduin took home the small-school, first-doubles crown with a 6-2, 7-6 (5) win over Dwight-Englewood’s Shereen Al-Sawwaf and Elizabeth Maline.
The second-doubles title went to the Bulldogs’ Evangelina Leventis and Shira Federman, who beat the Cowgirls’ Angela Rossi and Heji Kim, 6-1, 6-3.
