Terriers take bite out of Cardozo-Win a record seventh straight Mayor’s Cup as streak hits 115

Perhaps they should rename the girls bracket of the Mayor’s Cup the St. Francis Prep Invitational. Because for the seventh straight year, the Terriers won the tournament - a record on either the boys or girls side - by dispatching of Cardozo, the two-time PSAL champs, 4-1, in rather mundane fashion last Sunday afternoon at the National Tennis Center in Flushing.
The win was also St. Francis’s 115th straight team win; ironically, their last loss was in the finals of the 1999 Mayor’s Cup to Cardozo. “I don’t like to lose, and, fortunately, neither do my players,” St. Francis Coach John Brennan said.
The victory was perhaps the most emotional of any in recent memory for the juggernaut Terriers. It was the final team match for their second and third singles players, Kathrin Sorokko and Martina Featherston. “Kathrin Sorokko and Martina Featherston are the finest captains I’ve ever had,” Brennan said. “They set a perfect example for the entire team.”
“It makes me feel so proud that all the hard work I’ve put in practice and traveling [for tournaments] has been worth it,” Featherston said after dispatching of Cardozo’s Dara Lahens 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. “I feel like I’ve done my duty and now I can pass the torch on to the juniors.”
That “torch” is in the hands of excellence in Featherston’s young sister, Shinann, the No. 1 player on the east coast in the United States Tennis Association’s (USTA) 18-and-under division. Shinann Featherston breezed in first singles over Eve Kim, 6-0, 6-0. “She’s the only player I’ve had who can go to any college in the country, and that includes Stanford,” said Brennan. “Shinann is probably the best high school player in the last 20 years.”
But perhaps the biggest surprise was how easily the Judges’ doubles team was dispatched of. During the year, that was their greatest strength. Their first doubles team of Julia Passik and Nicole Haynal finished with an unblemished 13-0 mark against public school competition; against St. Francis they were handled by Natalie Fouche and Carolina Koladzyn, 6-2. 6-1. In second doubles, Karen Roa and Vlada Grigoryeva of St. Francis whizzed past Stefanie Smith & Christine Luebcke, who went 14-2 and clinched the Judges’ city championship a few weeks ago, 6-2, 6-2.
“This is a hell of a team,” Cardozo Coach Neal Baskin said. “They lived up to their reputation.”