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TENNIS NOTES
FRESHMAN COMPETITORS TAKE CENTER STAGE IN OCTOBER TOURNAMENT PLAY
So much for first-year jitters. A host of NEC freshman have made an impact thus far in 2012-13, none more so than FDU’s Nicole Chis (Highland Park, NJ/Highland Park). Chis has booked back-to-back NEC Rookie of the Month honors, and after a stellar stretch, takes home NEC Player of the Month accolades for October as well. She has claimed individual singles titles at the USTA Invitational and Stony Brook Classic thus far, and also paired Manuela Leme (Varginha, Brazil/E.E. Antania Alves Cruz) to capture the doubles title at USTAs. On the year, she is 12-1 in singles play and 6-2 in doubles competition for the defending champion Knights. Likewise, Sacred Heart freshman Katie DeRienzo (Douglaston, NY/St. Francis Prep) won the fourth singles flight at the New England Championships, beating opponents from UConn and Providence.
On the men’s side, Bryant has a pair of freshman making noise. Max Vogt (Fair Oaks, CA/Granite Bay) won five-of-seven singles matches and went 8-0 in doubles competition teaming with junior Dana Parziale (Pinehurst, NC/Pinecrest) this past month en-route to NEC Player and Rookie of the Month honors. Teammate Arklon Huertas Del Pino (Lima, Peru) had a big month, winning all three of his singles matches in straight sets while posting a 6-3 doubles mark with sophomore Zac Morris (Garden City, NY/Garden City). Quinnipiac freshman Luke Roser (Bernardsville, NJ/Bernards) finished October with a 4-1 singles ledger and 3-1 doubles record. He reached the Flight “C” finals at the Quinnipiac Invitational. Sacred Heart’s impact freshman is Jeremy Shuskus (West Hartford, CT/Hall), who won the third singles flight at the UConn Invitational.
• Blake Brothers: Mount St. Mary’s is off to a 3-0 start in dual play this season with senior Matthew Blake (Garnet Valley, PA/Salesianum (DE)) leading the charge with a 9-2 singles mark, including 3-0 in #1 flight dual match play. Over the last month, he went 6-1 in singles and 3-2 in doubles along with partner Taylor Place (Snellville, GA/St. Pius X). His brother, Austin Blake (Garnet Valley, PA/Salesianum (DE)), has also excelled in his freshman season, posting a 9-2 dual match mark competing at the #4 flight.
• Green & White Revival: The Wagner women won back-to-back matches for the first time since April, 2006, beating St. Francis (NY) and Rider last month. At the same time, the Seahawks were over .500 in dual match play for the first time since September 21, 2007.
• Women’s Here & There: Bryant finished the fall season with a 4-1 record in dual meet play...Bryant junior Marcela Brandao (Santo Andre, Brazil) went 4-2 in singles play in October, including a pair of league wins against Monmouth and Sacred Heart...LIU Brooklyn’s Sanne Louwers (Nuenen, Netherlands/Mgr. Cuytenlaan) advanced to the “B” flight semifinals at the USTA Invitational, and with partner Taysha Belssington (Sydney, Australia/Roseville College), made the “B” flight doibles final...Monmouth wrapped up its fall season with a 4-2 NEC win over Wagner...Wagner sophomore Julia Teichman (Plymouth Meeting, PA/Germantown Academy) won all three of her singles matches this past month and is 4-0 on the year. She secured #5 flight victories over NEC rivals St. Francis (NY) and Monmouth.
• Men’s Here & There: FDU sophomore Arvis Berzins (Adazi, Latvia/Riga Centre Language School) reached the semifinals of Flight “A“ singles at the USTA Championships, while seniors Yuri Gricheno (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Colegio Amorim) and Peter Skvarka (Banska Bystrica, Slovakia / Gymnazium J.G. Tajovskeho) were runners-up in the consolation doubles round of Flight B at the Columbia Classic...Monmouth wrapped up its fall slate as sophomore Freddy Marcinkowski (Sparta, NJ/Sparta) and freshman Ramy Bekhiet (Robbinsville, NJ/Robbinsville) both competed at ITA Regionals. The Hawks open up their spring season at NJIT on February 1, 2013.
• Tennis HQ: For all the latest NEC tennis news, visit www.northeastconference.org. You can also follow the league on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube (@NECsports) as well as the NEC Overtime! blog (necovertime.com).
Milestone Watch
• Mike Quitko (QU Head Coach)
Quitko is 13 dual meet wins shy of 500 in his splendid career, which includes six NEC women’s titles and four men’s crowns.
• Rachel Cantor (QU)
Cantor has 105 career wins, just two shy of moving into 12th place all-time at Quinnipiac.
Quotable
• Mike Quitko (QU Head Coach)
“St. Francis (NY) is a much improved team from last year under head coach Chad Davis. It’s great to take all seven points in the season-opener, but more importantly we walk away with our first win of the season.” - following a 7-0 men’s win over St. Francis (NY) to open NEC play
• Myriam Sopel (WC Head Coach)
“It was an outstanding fall season as the girls really came together and had a tremendous start to the year. We are excited for the spring season to start and will continue to keep working hard.”
• Tweet - @jennaharris03
Great win today! Love these girls and congrats on our winning record! @WagnerWTennis @WagnerAthletics pic.twitter.com/Qpi8fnWp