Doubles Delight Down 2-1, Cardozo sweeps doubles, wins second straight city title

A season ago, Christine Luebcke was on the sidelines as Stefanie Smith and Julia Passik won their second doubles match to carry Cardozo to their first PSAL Class A city championship in 15 years. This year, she was on the court alongside Smith, with another city title up for grabs.
Although Smith’s partner was different (Passik was busy winning in first doubles with Nicole Haynal), the result was the same - another clutch, pressure-packed win, resulting in another championship for Cardozo, as they rallied for a 3-2 victory over Stuyvesant Monday at Queens College. “They’re terrific,” Cardozo Coach Neal Baskin said. “Any time you come from behind, it’s exciting.”
Exciting may not have been the word that came to mind for Baskin when Dara Lahens lost a one-set lead and then a 4-3 edge in the final set, to fall to Stuyvesant’s Margarie Krivitski 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, putting Cardozo (16-0) in a 2-1 hole. “Of course I was concerned,” Baskin said. “It meant we had to win both doubles.”
Passik and Haynal breezed past Stuyvesant’s Kerry Weinberg and Kristen Ng 6-2, 6-3, leaving it up to Smith once again, although she didn’t realize the magnitude of her assignment until midway through the opening set of her match. “I saw her (Lahens) go up and shake the girl’s hand, but I didn’t know which way it went,” she said. “But then word spread.”
Much like last year, all the attention was now on Smith (and Luebcke). But after squandering a 5-3 lead in the opening set, Smith, an experienced sophomore, drilled a pair of winners - one backhand, one forehand - to propel the Judges to a 7-5 win in the first set tiebreaker, en route to a straight set victory, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. “That was the match,” Baskin said. “The whole momentum changed after the tiebreaker.”
“Really nerve-wracking,” is how Smith described it. But after another crowning achievement, she said, smiling from ear to ear, “it’s a great feeling.”
Luebcke, who last May as a substitute was busy, giving Smith’s father updates on her cell phone during the final match, started shakily, allowing each mistake to visibly bother her. But, soothed by Smith, “she was like ‘relax, breathe,’ ” Luebcke recalled, she found her rhythm as the match went on, and was solid in the clinching final set. “When they told me we were the deciding match, I was nervous,” Luebcke admitted. “But as the match went on, and we went ahead, I relaxed.”