New SUNYAC format for Blue Devil netters
Sports Information Department – 112 Dods Hall
Phone (716) 673-3100 / Fax (716) 673-3136
CONTACT: Jerry Reilly,
Sports Information Director
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Women's tennis
FREDONIA, N.Y. -- A new conference format has been adopted for the 2009 SUNYAC women’s tennis season.
For the first time, Fredonia State and the other seven SUNYAC schools sponsoring teams will play head-to-head during the regular season. The Blue Devils will meet their three closest opponents in stand-alone matches, and will face the other four teams over three days at two centrally located sites.
Of the seven SUNYAC matches, only one will be played on the Steele Hall courts – Sept. 5 vs. Geneseo in the season opener. The next two conference matches will be played in Binghamton – Sept. 11 vs. Cortland and Sept. 12 vs. Oneonta at 9 a.m., followed by a trip to Syracuse for a 3 p.m. match vs. Plattsburgh. The Blue Devils will remain in Syracuse for a Sept. 13 match vs. New Paltz. Trips to Brockport (Sept. 19) and Oswego (Sept. 26) complete the Blue Devils’ seven-game conference schedule.
Seeded conference championship matches will again be held in suburban Syracuse over three days (Oct. 9-10-11). Conference champions will be eligible for the NCAA Division III tournament next spring.
Head coach Joe Calarco’s team is scheduled to play non-conference home matches vs. Penn State Behrend (Sept. 9), Alfred (Sept. 23), D’Youville (Sept. 24), and Pitt-Bradford (Oct. 3). They are scheduled to visit Case Western (Sept. 30), Allegheny (Oct. 2), and Roberts Wesleyan (Oct. 7).
In his 10th season as head coach, Calarco will be looking to replace four departed starters, including 2008 co-captains and four-year players Elise Daigler and Sierra Summerville. He expects two seniors, Megan Zarzycki (Rochester/Irondequoit) and Mallory Long (Canandaigua), and two juniors, Anna Norris (Binghamton/Susquehanna Valley) and Calee Prindle (Geneva), to form the nucleus of his starting lineup, which will be comprised of six singles players and three doubles teams.
Also returning to the team are juniors Jennifer Garwol (Rochester/Spencerport), Stephanie Hale (Lockport/Starpoint), and Tara Slowik (Hamburg/Frontier); and sophomore Chelsea Ringen (Northport/Long Island Lutheran).
The newcomers are junior Abby Busch (Elmira/Thomas Edison) and Chelsea Mang (Lancaster/Depew), and freshmen Meredith Budniewski (Fredonia), Lesley Cerniglia (Lindenhurst), Katrina Johnston (Fredonia), and Julie Kalita (Niagara Falls/Niagara Wheatfield).