The MVCC Women’s Tennis team traveled to Peachtree City, Ga., this past week and competed against seven other teams in the National Championship Tournament. The Hawks finished in fifth place in the team tournament and had some outstanding individual performances in the singles and doubles flights. The only two returners from last year’s sixth place National Championship finishing team — Julia Cucci and Callie Ott — had outstanding performances this year with Ott winning a team-high four matches and Cucci winning three matches as they led the Hawks in scoring in this year’s tournament.
On Day 1, the quarterfinal round, in singles play, the top two flighted Hawks, All-American sophomore Julia Cucci and freshman Rebecca Huynh both won their quarterfinal matches to advance to the semifinals. Cucci defeated Emily Vaught of Patrick and Henry 6-2, 6-4 and Huynh defeated Tyler Gray from College of DuPage 6-3, 6-4. They were joined in the semifinals by Hannah Richter in the sixth singles flight who advanced to the semifinals via a bye in the quarterfinals. Philymena Dikar, Callie Ott, and Kaitlyn Fitch lost their singles matches on the first day. In the afternoon doubles, Huynh and Dikar lost to Freddie Marlow and Margaret Gonas of the Fashion Institute of Technology 6-3, 6-2. In a great three-set match Cucci and Ott lost to Annalise Ramos and Selena Guerrera of Camden College by a score of 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.
On Day 2, the NJCAA semifinal matches first and second singles flights pitted Cucci and Huynh against eventual national champions Grace Wang and Emily Freestone of Oxford College as the Hawks would be defeated. Hannah Richter defeated Tiara Clyde of Camden College to advance to the sixth singles flight National Championship match by a score of 6-2, 6-1. Dikar, Ott, and Fitch all won their back draw consolation matches Saturday morning to continue scoring points for Mohawk Valley. In the consolation doubles afternoon session, Cucci and Ott defeated Erin Innerarity and Emma Spadaro of Hudson Valley 6-0, 6-1 to add more to the team total.
On the final day, Hannah Richter was defeated by Livia He of Oxford College 6-0, 6-0 in the National Championship match of the sixth singles flight and was rewarded as a national runner-up and named a Second Team All-American for the sixth singles flight. Again Dikar, Ott, and Fitch won the championship of their consolation bracket to add more to the team score. Cucci and Ott also won their doubles consolation bracket to add to the total.
“It was a great trip down to Georgia," said Coach Nick Evanoff. "We had a better showing this year than last year, and the weather was beautiful the entire time. We played some high-quality tennis but came out on the wrong end a few times. I’m very proud of this team; we battled through a lot of injuries this season and just kept playing. Every person got at least one win and contributed to the team scoring. Fifth place at Nationals is the best finish Mohawk Valley’s had ever had at the National Tournament. The team next year will look a lot different as most of this team is graduating, so the standard has been set and the future must look to improve upon it.”
Evanoff was named Region III Coach of the Year for the third consecutive season as the Hawks finished the regular season undefeated and won the Region III Championship for the third straight year.
Final team scores
- First Place: Oxford College of Emory University – 36 points
- Tie - Second Place: Fashion Institute of Technology – 18 points
- Tie - Second Place: Camden College – 18 points
- Fourth Place: Rowan College of South Jersey – 13 points
- Fifth Place: Mohawk Valley – 11 points
- Sixth Place: Hudson Valley – 2 points
- Seventh Place: Patrick and Henry – 1.5 points
- Eighth Place: College of DuPage – 0.5 points
MVCC Individual Records at 2022 National Tournament
- Julia Cucci: 3 wins, 2 losses – 3rd place 1st singles, 5th place 2nd doubles
- Rebecca Huynh: 1 win, 3 losses – 3rd place 2nd singles, 7th place 1st doubles
- Philymena Dikar: 2 wins, 3 losses – 5th place 3rd singles, 7th place 1st doubles
- Callie Ott: 4 wins, 2 losses – 5th place 4th singles, 5th place 2nd doubles
- Kaitlyn Fitch: 1 win, 3 losses – 5th place 5th singles, 4th place 3rd doubles
- Hannah Richter: 1 win, 3 losses – 2nd place (National Runner-up, 2nd team All-American), 6th singles, 4th place 3rd doubles