Monday, June 4, 2018: Medina's Green wins NYSPHSAA girls golf crown

   Leading off today: Medina sophomore Melanie Green shot a 2-under-par 70 on Sunday to secure a two-stroke victory in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association girls golf championships at Bethpage State Park.

   Green, a two-time Section 6 champion and the third-place finisher at the 2017 state tournament, finished with a two-round score of 6-under 138 to win by two strokes over Bailey Shoemaker of Unadilla Valley.

   Carmel captured the first team championship in the history of the tournament.

   Green, the co-leader through 18 holes, opened her second round with a birdie. A double-bogey seven on the 10th hole moved her to 1-over for the day, but she made birdies on Nos. 14, 16 and 17 to fight off Shoemaker, a seventh-grader who fired a tournament-record 65 in a seven-birdie, no-bogey round on the 5,721-yard Yellow Course.

   Green and Shoemaker were not paired for the round, but both finished at about the same time thanks to the shotgun-start format. Beginning her round on No. 2, Shoemaker made birdie on four of her last seven holes and posted a 5-under 32 on the back nine.

   Around the 15th or 16th hole I asked my coach if anybody was making a run," Green said. "He told me Shoemaker was 1-under."

   Shoemaker started the day in sixth place following an opening 75.

   "Saturday night after my round we went straight to the putting green for about two hours maybe, went to the range to work a few things out and went back and started putting again," Shoemaker said.

   Alice Hodge of Ursuline and Kaitlyn Lee of Scarsdale tied for third at 1-under with final-day scores of 70 and 75, respectively. Lee was the first-round co-leader.

   Auburn senior Lindsay May, seeking her fourth NYSPHSAA championship in five years, finished sixth at 6-over 150. May struggled down the stretch and bogeyed four of her final six holes.

   "I kind of knew in my head that it wasn't going to be good enough, and that put more pressure on my putting, which wasn't good," May said.

   Carmel, which finished this season 12-0 and won the Section 1 team championship despite losing 2017 state champ Lauren Peter, won team honors with a two-day score of 681, which was 24 strokes clear of runner-up Clarence. Waverly (717), Fayetteville-Manlius and Syosset (747) rounded out the top five.

   Girls lacrosse: The pairings for the NYSPHSAA girls lacrosse semifinals are now set after a day of nail-biting drama in the Long Island championship games:

    • Samantha Blair scored off a free position shot with 20 seconds remaining in the second overtime to lift West Islip to a 6-5 win over Massapequa in the state Class A quarterfinal.

   Danielle Marino scored three first-half goals and Lions goalkeeper Lauren DiStefano stopped 13 shots, many from close range late in the regulation and in overtime.

   "Lauren is incredible and she really stepped up this year," Blair said. "Without her we wouldn't be where we are now."

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    • Eastport-South Manor tied the contest on a Hannah Kenneally goal with one second to play in regulation, but Manhasset recovered to earn an 11-10 win in Class B as Grace Gately scored the winning goal with 1:12 remaining in the second overtime period.

   ESM fought back from a 4-0 deficit 10 minutes into the game.

   "I think we were all a little bit shocked because there was a second left," Gately said. "We were so close but we were told in the huddle we had to shake it off and go out there and do our best because we started strong in the beginning and we knew we could do it again."

   Shea Garcia scored four goals for the winners, and Gately finished with a goal and three assists.

    • Grace Tauckus fired a shot into the upper left corner with 2:08 left in the second sudden-death overtime to give Cold Spring Harbor a 13-12 win over three-time defending state Class C champion Mount Sinai.

   Tauckus scored four goals, all after halftime.

    • In Class D, Mattituck/Southold overwhelmed Carle Place 16-5 as senior Jane DiGregorio recorded four goals and an assist.

   "I think losing in the state semifinals last year was such a motivation for us," DiGregorio said. "We want to get back there and be able to prove ourselves and prove that we're better than how we played last year."

   The Tuckers broke the game open by scoring eight of the final nine goals in the first half for a 9-3 lead.

   Boys golf: Croton-Harmon junior Matt Ferrari shot a 1-under 70 to take the lead at the midpoint of the two-day NYSPHSAA tournament on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University.

   Ferrari is bidding to become Section 1's fourth consecutive state champion.

   Aidan Shaw of Orchard Park and Evan Sitts of Oneonta are tied for second, three stroke in back of Ferrari.

   Federation tennis: Shawn Jackson of Susan Wagner capped his high school career by capturing the Federation singles championship after NYSPHSAA champ Patrick Maloney of Oyster Bay defaulted.

   In the semifinals at the USTA National Tennis Center, the Hofstra recruit breezed to a 6-1, 6-0 win over Peter Frelinghuysen of the Trinity School.