Leading off today: Nassau County swept the singles and doubles championships Monday at the Tri-City Fitness Center in Latham.
Top-seeded Kseniya Zonova of Hewlett defeated Sydney Kaplan of Suffern 6-3, 6-2 in the singles final. Courtney Kowalsky and Celeste Matute of Oyster Bay completed the Section 8 sweep by successfully defending their NYSPHSAA doubles championship with a 6-3, 6-1 win over freshmen Laina Campos and Vanessa Ciano of Ursuline.
It was the first Section 8 sweep since 1989.
"We were definitely more confident coming in this year as the defending champs," Matute told Newsday. "But there was a lot more pressure that came with it."
The doubles champs lost just 21 games in the final nine matches of the season spanning the Nassau County and state tournaments.
"I think that our opponents, they executed their serves really well," Ciano told The Journal News. "Their serves helped them poach our returns, which caused them to get the lead."
Zonova suffered an early jolt when she dropped the first set of her round-of-16 match. She didn't drop a set the rest of the way.
Racial slur allegations: A Rochester boys soccer team's celebration of a Section 5 title was marred by racial slurs yelled by supporters of the losing team, according to the school's assistant principal.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Kimberly Garlock wrote that she was disheartened by the actions of a handful of adults after School #58/World of Inquiry beat Red Creek 3-1 for the Class C-1 title, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
"Sadly, many adults chose to yell out racial slurs as we exited the stands following the award ceremony," Garlock wrote. "These hateful slurs continued as our team headed to the bus."
Chip Partner, chief communications officer for the Rochester City School District, said the district was aware of the reports. In an email to the paper, he said that the district would need to investigate further before addressing concerns with Red Creek or making public comment.
"The district is proud of our World of Inquiry boys' soccer team for winning its second sectional championship in a row," Partner said, "and the school's focus now is supporting them in the next game against Geneseo on Tuesday."
Red Creek administrators acknowledged Monday they had launched an investigation into the incident.
"It has been reported to us by sources that we believe to be credible, that racial slurs were used at and around opposing team members and/or fans," the district said in a press release.
On the move (again): The Section 1 football finals have racked up more moves than Atlas Van Lines. And now the venue for the Class AA, A and B football championship games has moved yet again, The Journal News reported.
The reason this time was fairly legitimate: You can't safely configure a football field inside Dutchess Stadium, a detail that escaped the notice of Section 1 administrators until just days before the scheduled finals. (Editor: Insert joke about Section 1 administrators here.)
"We looked at the thing and we all agreed that there might be a safety problem in the far corner of one of the end zones," Section 1 football chairman Chuck Scarpulla said. "It was very close to the (outfield) wall. At this point, we decided, 'God forbid somebody got hurt,' and we didn't want that to happen."
Scarpulla said Section 1 administrators learned more about the conditions at Dutchess Stadium over the weekend.
