Palm Beach County tennis teams thrive at USTA National Championships

For the first time, the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona staged a national high school championship tournament – a two-day invitational featuring the top eight girls and top eight boys teams in the country.

Teams from Hawaii, Los Angeles and Tennessee descended upon the training ground for American professional tennis players but nobody looked better than Palm Beach County.  

The American Heritage-Delray boys and Saint Andrew’s girls took the three-hour drive to the Orlando area and shone.

American Heritage was runner-up at the USTA High School National Championships, losing in the finals to the Greater Atlanta Christian School.

The Scots girls also made the finals, coming out of its four-team  group stage unbeaten before losing in the national championship match to Baylor School (Tennessee) on Feb. 28.

The respective coaches, American-Heritage-Delray’s Brian Schleifer and Saint Andrew’s Reid Rafter were joyous to be part of the first-time event that played with college rules – six singles and three doubles for each match.

Palm Beach County high school tennis: Teams and players to watch in 2026

Court naming: American Heritage-Delray honors legendary tennis coach

“I’m thrilled,’’ Schleifer said. “It was such a good experience, such a good thing for high school tennis. To see how into it these kids were. It was such a great environment, a great energy about it. All these kids want to play college tennis so this  is what it is.’’

Florida high school matches are only five singles and two doubles. The other difference was coaching being allowed during play. In FHSAA tennis, coaches can only say stuff to players during changeovers.

“With the college rules, coaches were allowed on the court to coach during play,’’ Rafter said. “There were no issues of delayed play and absolutely no issues of bad line calls by kids.  When you’re not able to have referees on the courts and have coaches, it’s such a great way to help police things. There wasn’t one problem in any match we had.

“It’s a shame we don’t have college rules regarding coaching for high school tennis. We’d be able to actually coach the kids like basketball and football. In high school tennis, you can only coach during a changeover.’’

Entering the season, American Heritage was ranked No. 1 in the country, based on UTR ratings, but lost a top player in James Scholer to wrist surgery two weeks ago. Hence, it dropped to 5^th in the national rankings without his standing.

“So it was a nice result,’’ Schleifer said of finishing runner-up. “I know we’re a talented team but every team there is so good. It’s such a small margin in every match. I really liked the heart this team showed, grinding out the group stage.”

With eight boys schools,  two four-team groups were formed. The winner of each group stage faced off for first place. American Heritage was 3-0 in the group stage,

The Stallions beat LA Harvard Westlake 5-2 in the first match, winning a couple of third-set tiebreakers, then took out McCallie School (Tennessee) and Sidwell Friends of Washington DC.

Sophomore first singles Geoff Kosseifi keyed the win over the Los Angeles visitors, rallying from a set down to win in a third-set tiebreaker. “It was a really big match for him, showed a lot of heart,” Schleifer said.

Junior Karl Volles was another standout. He played fourth singles and doubles, posting a combined 4-2 record in the group stage. The first doubles team of Kosseifi-Ajinkya Karnataki was also on fire.

Saint Andrew’s performance was a bigger surprise as the team’s oldest players are sophomores.

“We had eight players contribute,’’ Rafter said. “Super proud of the kids. Such a young team to finish second in a national championship is an astounding accomplishment.’’

In the group stage, Saint Andrew’s rolled through a Hawaii school, a Georgia school and Riviera Prep (Miami).

Second singles, freshman Sophia Osipova went unbeaten in the event. Freshman Isabella Gonzalez, at first singles, was 3-1, losing in the national championship match to Baylor in two close sets. An eighth grader, Mercedes Laub was 3-1 at 3.

Another big contributor was Bella Kurstin. a sophomore who won 11-9 in the third-set tiebreaker in the championship round. Sophomores Aylin Ekmekci, Stella Pollock, Millie Cochran and  grader Savina Somrock also received play.

Saint Andrew’s boys team was also invited but didn’t get out of the group stage because of a couple of injuries. The Scots boys have beaten the Stallions in the regular season, 4-3.

“I didn’t have anyone undefeated but that’s what I liked about it,’’ Schleifer said of the Stallions’ big milestone. “with the college format, somebody came through in every match.’’

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: American Heritage-Delray, Saint Andrew’s tennis shine at USTA nationals