2nd Singles Champion Montana Wilson receiving her award with SUNYAC Commissioner Pat Damore

We concluded a very successful fall tennis season last weekend at the SUNYAC Conference Championships, finishing in 2^nd place and crowning freshman Montana Wilson 2^nd singles champion. We also saw junior Lindsey Garyn, in 3^rd singles final and freshman Alli Esposito in 6^th singles final finish as runners up in their respective finals. Montana along with her doubles partner freshman Kayla DiPaulo finished runners up in a highly competitive 2^nd doubles championship.

After a tough preseason the regular season got underway very successfully with a conference away with at Plattsburgh followed by the team winning the two day RPI Tennis Invitational in Troy, NY. With a very new team we acquitted ourselves very early on in the season putting together some very impressive wins against fellow

SUNYAC Finalists left to right Kayla DiPaulo, Lindsey Garyn, Alli Esposito and Montana Wilson

conference opposition Brockport, Cortland, Oswego, Fredonia and losing a highly competitive match against our conference rivals Geneseo. Outside of our conference we posted excellent wins against RPI and Western Connecticut and our first ever win against NYU. Our top 4 players competed at the ITA National Individual Championships at William Smith, which had us drawn against some of the best Div III players in our region. Leading up to the conference championships we played local rivals Oneonta in what was a very tough match up against a highly improved team and although we won 7-2 the score was very misleading in what was a very tough match. The last dual match of the fall was against cross Hudson river rivals and #21 in the nation Vassar. A very enjoyable match against some very strong players was topped with our only win of the night by freshman Kayla DiPaulo at 4^th singles and although Ingrid lost her unbeaten record she should be very proud to have set a new school record, 13-0 before losing to a strong player from Vassar. The fall season concluded with the team standing at 9-2 overall a very respectable position to take to the spring season.

The team and family at the SUNYAC Conference Championships in Manlius, NY

Overall I’m very pleased about how this very new and young team has come together, about their work ethic both on and off the courts and how hard they competed in each and every match. I’m looking forward to the start of our challenging spring schedule and to being back on the courts in late February. Congratulations to each and every student athlete who participated in our fall program, good luck to our fall graduating senior Lyndsey Lovinger and I would like to personally thank all the parents who turned up at our home matches and all over New York State to support our tennis program.

Coach

Montana Wilson
Hopewell Junction, NY/John Jay
Freshman
Women’s Tennis

Freshman Montana Wilson was crowned SUNYAC Champion in the second singles this past weekend in Manlius, New York. Wilson was seeded second in the tournament with a 10-4 (6-1 SUNYAC) record. Wilson defeated defending sixth singles champion from 2008 Melissa Baker (Geneseo) with a come from behind victory in three sets. She cruised through the semifinal round with a straight set victory over Jenna When (Oswego). In the finals, Wilson defeated #1 seed Stephanie DiCapo (Cortland) in three sets in a come from behind victory.

Sophomore Ingrid Maryansky improved to 12-0 on the season in 5th singles with her win over Tiffany Thong 6-1, 6-2 in the New York University match. The Hawks for the first time in school history defeated NYU, 5-4. Ingrid is tied for first all-time at New Paltz with 12 wins in a season.

On Monday 5 October Ingrid went on to break the school record with a hard fought 2 sets to 1 win against Danielle Browarski, Oneonta. Ingrid really had to show some character in this match going down 6-2 in the first set only to fight her way back to winning both the 2nd and 3rd sets both by 6-4. With this well deserved victory Ingrid goes into next weeks conference championships as the #1 seed in the 5th singles flight. Well done Ingrid on your great achievement and being awarded player of the week for the athletic department.

Left Lyndsey Lovinger & right Kerri Serkes receive flowers in recognition of 4 great varsity tennis years.

Friday 2nd October was our Senior Day. As Lyndsey would be graduating this fall, a semester early, we decided to move our Senior Recognition Day from the spring to the fall. This Senior Day must have inspired our team as we ran out 5-4 winners against NYU, a team I had not beaten in my time as head coach at New Paltz. In honor and recognition to both our senior captains I have published a few words of appreciated I recited at their awards ceremony. Again thank you Kerri and Lyndsey for all you have done for our women’s tennis program both on and off the courts.

The team applaud in honor and recognition for their Captains and fellow team mates.

“I would like to take this time to honor our two Senior Captains,
Kerri Serkes, Massapequa and Lyndsey Lovinger, Miller Place. Over the past 4 years both Kerri and Lyndsey have been role model student athletes both on the tennis courts and more importantly in the classroom. It has been my pleasure and honor to be their coach for the past 4 years. Their contributions to the program speak for themselves and were both major participants in our back-to-back Conference Championship in 2006/2007. Both show superb work ethic and sportsmanship on the courts, always trying to improve themselves with each and every practice.

Lyndsey will be graduating a semester early with a degree in Communications. She has been a major player in the continued success of our tennis program. A 4-year starter on the program over her 4 years she put together a record of
- 26-12 in singles, 31-14 in doubles
- 1st Team All-SUNYAC 2006 and 2007
- 2006 SUNYAC Conference Champion in 3rd doubles
- 2007 SUNYAC Conference Champion in 4th singles
- 2007 SUNYAC Conference Champion in 2nd doubles and has been on the SUNY Conference all academic list all 4 years
- 2009 Team Captain.

Kerri does still have one more semester on our team but we wanted to honor her today with her doubles partner, Lyndsey. Kerri will be graduating with a degree in Education. Again like Lyndsey a major player in the continued success of our tennis program. A 4-year starter on the team who like Lyndsey has put together impressive numbers both on and off the tennis court.
- 27-10 in singles, 13-10 in doubles
- 1st Team All-SUNYAC 2006 & 2008
- 2007 SUNYAC Runner-Up in 6th singles
- 2nd Team All-SUNYAC 2007
- 2006 SUNYAC Conference Champion in 6th Singles
- 2008 SUNYAC Conference Champion in 5th singles
- 2008 SUNYAC Runner-UP in 3rd doubles
- 1st Team All-SUNYAC 2008
- 2008 Tennis MVP award winner
- Back to back winner of the SUNYAC Chancellors Scholar athlete award winner 2007 and 2008
- 2 year SAAC representative for the tennis team and has been on the SUNY Conference all academic list all 4 years
- 2009 Team Captain

Both Kerri and Lyndsey will be sorely missed and I fully appreciate, and would like to thank them both for all they have done for New Paltz tennis. I wish them all the success in the future and I’m sure they will enjoy their remaining doubles matches together.

Article taken from SUNY New Paltz Athletic Website.

Kerri Serkes, 21 years old:

How did you get involved in tennis?  How old were you?

I was 12 years old, and I tried a bunch of sports when I was younger, but I fell in love with tennis.

Did you play any other sports in high school?

Track.

Do you have any brothers or sisters?

I have two brothers, one older and one younger.

What would you say is your favorite food?

Mac and Cheese.

If you could go on a celebrity dream date, who would it be with?

John Legend.

What is the first thing that you eat in the morning?

An apple.

What is the last movie that made you cry?

My Sister’s Keeper.

What’s your favorite movie?

The Holiday.

What’s your favorite color?

Lime Green.

What is on your i-Pod now?

The Fray

Most influential person(s) in your life?

My mom.

What is your dream job?

Interior Designer.

Are you on Facebook or a MySpace?

Facebook.

Invite four famous people, living or dead, to a dinner party:

James Franco, Seth Rogan, Michael Cera, and Steve Carell.

Jen Neumann class of 2003, SUNYAC Conference Champion 4th Singles

Jennifer Neuman

I now live in Texas. I have been here for a little over 2 years.  My husband (I got married back in June 2006) got a job promotion and that is what brought us down here.  We live about 20 minutes from Houston and we have a beautiful home that we bought when we first moved here. I work in Human Resource and have been at my current position since we moved here as well.  We are trying to get back to the east coast, possibly North Carolina (we lived in Mooresville, NC before we moved to Texas), my parents now live in NC, so we would like to get closer to family.

We do like Texas though, we have made great friends here and both love our jobs!  I actually just joined the Houston Tennis Association. I am trying to get into some tennis leagues, but haven’t done that yet. However, I have made some contacts and am getting out to play with people I meet through the Association. I miss playing on the team alot, it was such a wonderful experience for me. I would love to try and make the April 2010 Alumni Day, but I will have to get back to you on this if it’s a definite or not.

Jen’s Email: jenneumann33@yahoo.com

Controversy in a doubles match, what is the umpires decision!

Umpires and Officials from both the USTA and the ITA visited SUNY New Paltz on Tuesday, using our courts and current players of the women’s tennis team to film a new USTA/ITA Umpires & Referees Rules Training Video. Montana, Mackenzie, Lindsey and Ingrid were used to simulate

Montana is called for a foot fault voliation, Serena all over again!

different tennis scenarios where the rules of the game came into question. The many situations the girls were placed into will be used to train officials, over the coming months, from both the USTA and the ITA.

Excessive screaming and grunting after Mackenzie hits an overhead causes the umpire to make a ruling.

The many USTA officials who will be using this training video will be on show at the 2010 US Open and Open Series Events and many of the top ITA officials will be overseeing prestigious NCAA Division I tennis matches around the country. The filming took up most of Tuesday afternoon and the girls enjoyed being “Movie Stars” for a day.

#5 Singles Ingrid Maryansky 8-0 on the season

The weekend had the tennis team traveling conference rivals Cortland, who are a very much-improved team this year, and on Saturday a visit to non conference team RPI. The Cortland match saw our one and two doubles teams start very strongly against very good doubles opposition. Steph and Lindsey maintained their conference doubles domination with a 8-5 win followed by our 2 doubles freshmen team of Montana and Kayla bringing home an 8-4 win. Lyndsey and Kerri had a good battle on their hands going down 4-8 in a very evenly matched contest. Our dominance in our singles played continued with wins for Lindsey #3, Kayla #4, Ingrid #5 and Alli #6. Both Steph and Montana were both defeated in very tight matches at #1 and #2 singles. Unfortunately this was Montana’s first singles defeat of the season going down in 3 sets to a very tough Gabby Medina from Cortland.

#3 Doubles senior captain Kerri Serkes

Saturday we visited RPI in Troy again to face a much-improved RPI team to the one we faced upon winning their Invitational Tournament beginning of the season. A slow start for Steph and Lindsey at #1 doubles saw them lose for the first time this season going down 3-8. Montana and Kayla continued their dominance at #2 doubles winning 8-0 and a great performance by senior captains Lyndsey and Kerri saw them win a very tight match at #3 doubles by 8-6. Both players pulling on 4 years of doubles experience to bring home this one. Again we showed our strength in singles play by convincingly winning 4 out of the 6 singles matches, Steph winning at #1, Montana #2, Lindsey #4 and Ingrid #5. Ingrid’s win at #5 singles maintains her

#3 Doubles senior captain Lyndsey Lovinger

100% unbeaten record at 5 singles, congratulations to her and to the rest of the team for a very good display at both Cortland winning 6-3 and RPI winning 6-3.

This coming weekend our top 3 singles players, Steph, Montana and Lindsey and top 2 doubles teams of Steph/Lindsey and Montana/Kayla will be competing at the very competitive ITA North East Regional Tournament held a William Smith, Geneva. This tournament puts together the top players in the North East to battle it out in both singles and doubles play to represent the region at the Individual National Small Colleges Championships to be held 15 October in Mobile, Alabama. Good luck to you all in what should be some great Div III tennis. Our next match is our Senior Day on October 2, 3:30pm start at home to NYU. Look forward to seeing you there.

Night match @New Paltz even the sky is orange and blue!

Our first home match saw the team play a night match against Western Connecticut. On what was a perfect evening for tennis New Paltz continued its winning ways with a convincing 8-1 win. A very hotly contested 2^nd doubles match had Montana and Kayla winning 9-7 and Steph and Lindsey remaining unbeaten at 1^st doubles. Our 3^rd doubles team of Lyndsey and Kerri really turned up the heat in a resounding 8-0 win, both playing some of their best doubles play of the season. New Paltz ran away with the singles with only Steph, at 1^st singles losing a very even match, in a 3^rd set tie-break. This result keeps in place 100% records for Montana, Kayla and Ingrid and our 1^st doubles team of Stephanie and Lindsey. Looking forward to our trip to conference rivals Cortland this Friday. Great job everyone.