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(10/06/04 4:00pm)
Winning streaks happen with considerable frequency in athletics. However, the women's tennis team is in the middle of a streak spanning over 20 years, and their most recent win awarded the team their 22nd consecutive New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) title this Saturday. The Lions have won 106 consecutive matches against NJAC opponents since the fall of 1982.
The Lions defeated the Ospreys of Richard Stockton College 9-0 in the conference championship to conclude the fall season and clinch the NJAC title. Freshman Christina Contrafatto defeated Stockton's Kristen Tukel, 6-3, 6-1 in the first singles slot. Contrafatto shined all season at first singles. She attributes her success to her coach and teammates.
"(They) were all so welcoming and helpful," Contrafatto said. "I have been very happy."
Sophomore Kristen Turturiello defeated Stockton's Victoria Rosenfeld, 6-1, 6-1 at second singles to improve her career singles mark to 24-10. Fellow sophomore Ayumi Yamazaki, who garnered the title of NJAC Player of the Week three times this fall, defeated senior Kate Ciocciola 6-0, 6-0 at fourth singles.
Freshman Ariel Donohue and junior captain Jackie Gavornik were victorious as well at fifth and sixth singles, respectively. Gavornik defeated Caitlin McMahon, 6-1, 6-3 and Donohue beat Alysa Gold, 7-6 (2), 6-2.
All three doubles tandems, consisting of duos Contrafatto and Gavornik, Turturiello and senior Katie D'Amato, and Yamazaki with sophomore Karen Shih enjoyed an extremely successful afternoon by beating each of their opponents with relative ease.
While other members of the team have next year to continue their careers as Lions, D'Amato must retire her racket after a 20-0 NJAC career record in singles play. Although she was unaware of any standing record or consecutive titles at the start of her career, she quickly learned to compete with the heart of a champion.
"I am so happy to have played here at the College," D'Amato said, "It was a wonderful experience and I will really miss it."
D'Amato played the role of a great team leader, according to Turturiello. "(Katie) always gets pumped tries to motivate everyone before each match," she said. "She is just an all-around great kid, good athlete and has a good attitude all the time."
Head coach Scott Dicheck shares in Tuturiello's admiration for the team's lone senior. "I'm hoping she has as good of a spring season as she has had this fall," Dicheck said. "She will definitely be missed upon graduation."
The Lions will now have the remainder of the semester to prepare for their spring season. No doubt they will have NJAC win 107 in the back of their minds as they practice hard for 2005.
Dicheck said he feels this was by far the best season in his five years of coaching at the College. "We did not drop a single set in conference play," Dichek said. "This is the most we have ever dominated the NJAC."
(09/29/04 4:00pm)
This weekend posed the biggest challenge of the season for both the men's and women's tennis teams. The Lions made the trek to William Smith College in upstate New York to participate in the Wilson-Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Championship and represented the College well, advancing into the later rounds of play.
The College had their strongest players battling against the rest of the Northeast and came home with considerable success.
On the women's side, freshman Christina Contrafatto and sophomores Ayumi Yamazaki and Kristen Turturiello fought for the singles title. The tandems of Contrafatto with junior captain Jackie Gavornik and Turturiello with senior Katie D'Amato competed for the doubles crown.
All three singles players advanced to the quarterfinals, marking the first time that head coach Scott Dicheck had such success in his career.
Yamazaki and Contrafatto both advanced to the semi-final round, but fell to top-seeded Debbie Sharnak of Vassar, 6-0, 6-0 and Vassar's Debbie Graham, 6-7 (1), 7-6(5), 6-0, respectively.
In doubles action, Contrafatto and Gavornik fell to third-seeded Aimee Hayes and Kerry Smith of New York University to drop from the tournament after two wins.
Turturiello and D'Amato opened with a 9-8 (7) victory over the State University of New York at Oneonta's Laura Kent and Nan Lindell. They fell in the next round to Hamilton College's Ann Coleman and Tracy Donovan, 8-6.
The regional tournament is not set up like a normal match. Emphasis is put on individual play, rather than the team.
The top singles competitors, as well as a school's top double teams compete against representatives form other schools in the region. The overall winners from the single and double pools automatically advance to the National Tournament which is held in Florida.
D'Amato said she felt that the tournament "showed (we) had a strong team because many of the girls advanced quite far in the competition."
The men's team enjoyed considerable success as well. Competing at singles were sophomores Ryan Carty and Corey Ball, freshman Mike Klimchak and junior Justin Cook. The duos of Cook and Klimchak, Carty and Ball, and freshman Sonny Pollosco and senior Victor Lai challenged the other schools in the doubles bracket.
In Sunday's doubles play, after successful outings on Saturday, the Lions' duo of Klimchak and Cook lost to Eric Hauser and Thanos Kautarelis of Skidmore, 8-5. Carty and Ball lost to Hobart College's Pete Pine and Adam Raffga, 8-4, to fall from the tournament.
Cook said the weekend was bittersweet for the team. "We did not get great draws and were all eliminated, yet we almost beat the top player," he said. "There are many positives we can take from it."
In single's action, the spotlight was on Carty all weekend. After the quarterfinals, he advanced to the semifinals after beating Skidmore University's Nat Temin on Saturday 6-2, 6-2. He then fell in the semifinals to Pete Pine, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 of Hobart.
However, the scores do not reflect Carty's determination. He went on to compete after suffering from cramping and heatstroke. Ball recognized the heart of his teammate. "He could have easily forfeited the doubles match, but refused to," he said.
Dicheck agreed with Ball. "Ryan played incredibly and has made immense improvements since last spring," Dicheck said. "It was a grueling tournament, and we all played great. I'm looking forward to the future for Ryan, as well as the rest of the team."
(09/22/04 4:00pm)
The College's women's tennis team extended its impressive New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) winning streak to 101 straight victories this week with a win against Ramapo College (3-1). This NJAC streak began over 20 years ago in 1982.
The Roadrunners were not able to be victorious in a single match against the Lions, who concluded the day going 9-0 in doubles and singles play.
Mother Nature would not allow the Lions a chance to garner their 102nd NJAC win on Saturday at Rutgers-Newark. Heavy rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan dumped on most of the state, causing many sporting events to be postponed to a later date.
Sunday provided a beautiful opportunity for the women to compete against Kean University and William Paterson University. Both matches resulted in 9-0 victories, adding consecutive NJAC wins 102 and 103 to the growing list. Leading the Lions was NJAC Player of the Week, Ayumi Yamazaki at fourth singles. Yamazaki said the NJAC honor "was definitely unexpected, but it was a nice surprise."
The freshmen duo of Christina Contrafatto and Ariel Donahue at first and fifth singles, respectively, won both matches easily, 6-0, 6-0. "(They are) making a good transition into college and seem to be improving after each practice," Head coach Scott Dicheck said. Additionally, sophomore Kristen Turturiello and junior Caitlin Reich took over the court this weekend, beating both of their Cougars and Pioneer opponents 6-0, 6-0.
Turturiello feels the team's success is a result of hard work in and out of practice."So far we have really been determined and no matter who we play we just go out there and always treat each match like it's our hardest," Turturiello said.
With that type of mentality and work ethic, the Lions will fight for their 104th consecutive NJAC win against Montclair State University in Montclair before traveling to William Smith College next weekend to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional competition.
The men enjoyed a successful outing at the Philadelphia Area Tennis Tournament hosted by Haverford College on Saturday and Sunday. Out of the four teams competing, the Lions dominated the tournament, Dicheck said.
The tournament's flight setup was unlike a normal match in which all the teams play at the same time. "(This) gave us time to bond as a team and improves the cohesiveness," senior Ken Tsui said. Tsui was one of only three athletes honored at the tournament by receiving the Sportsmanship Award for his demeanor and play both on and off the court.
"It's nice to be recognized because I respect my opponents on the court and have fun when I play," Tsui said. "It was the cherry on top of a great weekend."
The Lions took home victories in all but one flight. However, in most of the final matches the College had athletes competing against their own teammates. Sophomore Ryan Carty beat Muhlenberg's Jeff Kraft 6-4, 6-3 in the Flight A finals as junior Justin Cook took third place.
In Flight B, freshman Mike Klimchak defeated his freshman teammate Sonny Polasco 4-6, 6-0, 1-0 (10). Flight C sophomore Corey Ball defeated Tsui in the finals 6-3, 6-0.
In doubles action, the tandems of Ball and Carty along with Tsui and Kilmchak took home titles in their respective flights on the tournament.
"I couldn't have been more pleased with the team's performance," Tsui said. When asked about Klimchak as his doubles partner, Tsui said, "I can't ask for more. His execution is flawless and he is very calm on the court."
"We were almost all playing each other in final matches," Ball said. "It was a great way to start the year with some confidence."
(09/15/04 4:00pm)
The men's and women's tennis teams started off the season with a bang this weekend at the Lion's Fall Kickoff Tournament.
The College squared off against New York University (NYU) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in both singles and doubles action.
The men's squad was 11-4 in singles action and 3-4 in doubles while the women were 7-13 in singles competition and 4-5 in doubles.
Head coach Scott Dichecksaid he had been looking forward to this first weekend of play ever since practice began. "We have a strong group of returnees and super freshmen," Dicheck said. "They looked good in practice all week."
In men's first singles action, sophomore co-captain Ryan Carty defeated both NYU sophomore Ian Corn 6-3, 6-2 and CMU junior Boris Sofman 6-2, 6-4 to begin his second season as a Lion at 2-0.
Junior co-captain Justin Cook enjoyed a successful weekend as well. Also entering the remainder of the fall season at 2-0, Cook defeated NYU junior Nico Buencamino 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 and Andrew Clearfield of CMU 3-6, 6-3, 1-0.
The College's women weresuccessful against NYU, but fell short in singles to CMU in all but one contest. Sophomore Aymui Yamazaki was the lone Lion to go 2-0 in the fourth singles spot. After defeating NYU freshman Meggie Smith 6-1, 0-6, 1-0, Yamazaki shut out CMU sophomore Allison Liu 6-0, 6-0.
Senior Katie D'Amato reflected on the team's performance the weekend. "The team is really deep this year with a lot of talent," D'Amato said. "We are looking to pick each other up as a team and battle through the closer matches to come out on top of each."
Along with wins from experienced members of the team, the College's freshman class proved to be worthy of intercollegiate competition. At first singles, freshman Christina Contrafatto defeated NYU senior Jen Sussman 6-4, 6-1, in her inaugural match with the program.
On the men's side, freshman Mike Klimchak made waves at third singles with two wins.
"I was pretty nervous because I didn't know any of the opponents," Klimchak said. "I expected the competition to be tough because of the intensity of the practices leading up to the weekend."
Evidently, Dicheck's practices prepared the squads for battle. Klimchak went 2-0 in singles play this weekend defeating NYU junior Chris Chang on Friday 6-1, 7-5. Saturday delivered another victory, this time against CMU's Stephen Kuhn 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.
This week the men's team will work hard to prepare for its upcoming challenges. They will travel to Haverford College to participate in the Philadelphia Area Tennis Tournament this weekend.
The women look ahead to five consecutive New Jersey Athletic Conference games beginning this Wednesday at home against Ramapo College.