Long Island Collegiate Roundup
Stony Brook Women Win America East Title and Qualify for the NCAA Tourney
The Stony Brook’s Women’s Tennis team has been on a rollercoaster ride all season long, from earning their first national ranking in program history, to heading up to Vestal, N.Y. where they won their fourth straight America East title, cruising past Binghamton and Albany to once again qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
“This never gets old,” Seawolves Head Coach Gary Glassman said. “This absolutely never gets old.”
Despite losing second singles player Jackie AltanSarnai, the Seawolves managed to bring in more talent than they already had, playing their best season to date, earning their first ever national ranking.
Freshmen Kristina Vozniak and Yana Nikolaeva, and New Yorker Elizabeth Tsvetkov, all contributed to the team’s effort, as the Seawolves only dropped three individual matches throughout all of conference play.
In the America East Championships, Stony Brook showed why they only lost one dual match on the year, playing their best tennis when it mattered most.
Tsvetkov avenged a loss against Binghamton from their regular season matchup by defeating Annie Dimuro at number five singles in straight sets in the Seawolves’ 4-0 win over the Bearcats in the semifinals.
Senior Polina Movchan cruised at number one singles, sophomore New Yorker Nadia Smergut knocked off her opponent at number three singles and Stony Brook took the doubles point to advance to the finals, where they would face the third-seeded Albany Great Danes.
Tsvetkov, from Brooklyn, won again in the finals after clinching the overall match in the semifinals, helping the Seawolves take home the title in their 4-0 victory over Albany, in which the team took the doubles point, second singles, fourth singles and fifth singles.
Movchan, who won her fourth America East title, took home the Most Outstanding Player Award for the tournament.
“She’s really been the game changer for our program,” Glassman said. “What a career.”
“I told the girls a month and a half ago, there’s something special about this team,” Glassman said. “I said, ‘you all have created a culture,’ and that’s really what it is. It’s a culture, it’s a mentality, and that’s something that hopefully they’ll continue to pass along to the new kids that we have coming in.”
No. 1 Stony Brook 4, No. 3 Albany 0
Doubles
1. Smergut & Badoche (SBU) def. Scott & Torres (UA) 8-4
2. Movchan & Nikolaeva (SBU) led Kukkonen & Sala (UA) 7-4 (DNF)
3. Vozniak & Tsvetkov (SBU) def. Hermans & Ognjenovic (UA) 8-3
Singles
1. Polina Movchan (SBU) led Dajana Ognjenovic (UA) 6-1, 5-3 (DNF)
2. Kristina Vozniak (SBU) def. Mireille Hermans (UA) 6-4, 6-0
3. Nadia Smergut (SBU) led Alba Sala (UA) 7-5, 4-2 (DNF)
4. Adey Osabuohien (SBU) def. Cheryl Kukkonen, (UA) 6-0, 6-1
5. Elizabeth Tsvetkov (SBU) def. Ana Glumac (UA) 6-0, 6-2
6. Paulina Torres (UA) led Louise Badoche (SBU) 6-0, 3-5 (DNF)
NYIT Men Capture Third Consecutive ECC Championship
The NYIT men’s tennis team defeated Queens College 6-0 in the East Coast Conference (ECC) title match, capturing its third consecutive ECC Championship.
The Bears were led by ECC Player of the Year Julio Pulido, as the senior from Spain knocked off Queens’ Sharvill Nawghre 6-3, 6-0 in the first singles match. NYIT also got huge contributions from its doubles tandems, who won all three doubles matchups.
Pulido teamed up with Argentinean senior Tomas Lieb to pick up an 8-4 victory over the team of Nawghre & Gabriel Mendez at first doubles. The tightest match of the contest came at third doubles, as NYIT’s New Zealander David Jiang & Spain’s Nico Jubera edged Queens College’s Christopher Baron & Lucas Martinez 9-8(2).
The Bears improve to 13-7 on the season, and advance to the NCAA tournament where they will be one of two regional hosts.
The men join the women’s tennis team at NYIT as ECC champions. The Lady Bears won the conference back in October to garner the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The women’s team finished the regular season at 19-4 overall and are ranked 10th in the country.
"I am very proud of the men, who worked very hard this season," said NYIT Men's Head Coach Jason Pasion. "It's an amazing feeling to win a championship, and we're all looking forward to the NCAA tournament."
LI’s Noah Rubin Wins ACC Freshman and Player of the Year
Noah Rubin of the 11th-ranked Wake Forest men's tennis team made history in becoming the first student-athlete in Atlantic Coast Conference men's tennis history to earn both ACC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year.
Rubin is the first player to win ACC Player of the Year in program history and is the third Freshman of the Year honoree to come out of Wake Forest, following in the footsteps of Derrick Spice in 2002 and Todd Paul in 2004. He was named ACC Player of the Week a conference-high four times during the regular season, including each of the final three weeks of the season leading into last week's ACC Championships.
In 22 matches during the spring season, Rubin posted a stellar record of 19-3 with 18 of those victories coming at number one singles. In conference play, the freshman from Long Island posted a 10-1 mark with his only loss coming to Nicolas Alvarez of Duke, who was the number 11 player in the country at the time of the match.
Even more impressive, Rubin posted a 13-3 mark against nationally-ranked players while posting wins over then- number one Sebastian Stiefelmeyer of Louisville, number seven Ryan Shane of Virginia, then- number nine Quentin Monaghan of Notre Dame and then- number 15 Brayden Schnur of North Carolina. Of those four top-15 players, Rubin posted straight-set wins against the three in the ITA Top 10 (Stiefelmeyer, Shane and Monaghan).
When it mattered most in the ACC Championships, Rubin posted three straight-set wins over the likes of Hunter Harrington of Clemson, No. 61 Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech and No. 7 Shane of Virginia.
Elbaba Earns All-ACC First Team Honors; Leads Virginia to ACC Championship
Virginia junior Julia Elbaba of Oyster Bay, N.Y. was named to the all-ACC First Team along with teammate Danielle Collins (St. Petersburg, Fla.). Elbaba earns her their third All-ACC honor, tying a school record held by Alison Cohen (1994-1996) and Lindsey Hardenbergh (2010-12).
Elbaba, who is ranked fifth in the latest ITA singles rankings, earns All-ACC honors for the third consecutive season after posting a 14-4 dual record and 10-3 mark in ACC action. Elbaba earned UVa's first number one ranking earlier this season.
The Oyster Bay native also helped the Cavaliers win its second consecutive ACC championship, defeating top-ranked North Carolina. She paired up with Skylar Morton to beat North Carolina’s Kendal Woodard and Paige Hourigan 8-4 to help Virginia clinch the doubles point in the title match.
