Concordia Preseason #1 CACC...

I have never fully understood the importance of preseason polls. These seem to be of very little value but for some reason the conference asks the coaches to take a preseason vote and then publishes some sort of press release with the results. I guess it gives SID's something to do and somehow strokes the ego of those praised. That being said, I have never seen any sort of trophy on the mantle in any home that boasts a preseason championship.

Well, now that you know how much I appreciate these polls, let me share the super-terrific news. Your Clippers have been voted CACC preseason #1 (fireworks exploding and lights flashing). Click here for the exciting story.

The CACC should have some improved teams this season and we will be looking forward to the enhanced challenge. We have done about as well as possible in our first two years in the conference and are certainly expecting to continue the success. Winning the CACC is one of the first steps necessary to achieve our ultimate goals. We know that there are a few teams that would love to take home the title so we do not take any achievement lightly, except of course, for a preseason honor.

Nuff said...

CACC Women's Champions

Well the above title essentially speaks for itself. The CACC Championship stays in the trophy case here in Bronxville as the women won their third championship in as many years since joining this conference.

In the semifinal match, the ladies defeated Holy Family 5-0. Clearly, this is a one sided score but this was actually a long match. In fact, the match at #1 doubles was a two hour affair that we eventually won in a tiebreaker 9-8. The Holy Family team really came to play and was not going to simply let us have the match without working. Luckily, the ladies were well prepared and were hungry to move on to the finals versus Goldey Beacom College.

The final match was a bit more complicated for sure. The team was pretty confident as we had defeated GBC earlier in the season 6-3. However, GBC was without two of their starting players in their top six that day and thus would be stronger this time around. The coaching staff knew that the doubles would be vital today and we were really hoping for a 3-0 sweep. We were well aware that Goldey has some tough singles players and that it would be difficult to dominate there. Luck was on our side and again we achieved our goal of winning all three matches. Once again, the number #1 match was a marathon which lasted close to two hours that we again won in a tiebreaker 9-8. Big props to Yuliya and Clara for their toughness. With the 3-0 lead and the subsequent confidence, we split the next four singles matches and won the match 5-2.

I am really glad that the CACC Championships were played last weekend and not this weekend as it is easier to blow the leaves off of the courts than to shovel snow off of them. Who knows what Coach Stroble would say about that...


I am really proud of the ladies for what they accomplished this year. Clearly, they were placed in a tough position with the former coach abandoning the program after the start of the season and without notice. Also, it was not easy for them to play an entire season without any new players or any reserve players while also adjusting to a new coaching staff with a new philosophy. We really stressed the importance of the doubles and focused much of our practice time in that area. As a result, the team rewarded us with a cumulative 29-1 dual match record in doubles.

When I first was approached with the idea of getting involved with the women's team, I was a little uncertain of what would be to come. However, I thought that Coach Neil deserved a little help. I am really proud of what Neil did for this program and these young women, He stepped up and provided the team with the experience that they deserved. I really think that he did a remarkable job and should be considered for the regional coach of the year for his efforts.

I believe that the future is bright for the Clipper ladies as I have witnessed tremendous improvement with the players. There will also be help on the way with new members in January. It is not quite as easy to recruit for the women but I will apply painstaking effort to build this team into a nationally recognized program. I am not sure what my involvement will be beyond recruiting but let's see.

Nuff said...

CACC Women's Championship...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Oct. 21, 2011) – Concordia College will be looking for its third consecutive Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Women's Tennis Championship, as the 2011 tournament gets underway this weekend. The tournament will be hosted by the Clippers on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 22-23. Concordia will face No. 4 Holy Family University Saturday at 10:00 am, while No. 2 Chestnut Hill College will meet No. 3 Goldey-Beacom College. Sunday's championship match is slated for noon.

The Clippers enter the tournament having never lost a conference match since joining the league three years ago, going 8-0 each season. The Clippers have won the last two CACC Tournament crowns, including a 5-0 victory over Goldey-Beacom en route to an appearance in the NCAA Division II Tournament Quarterfinals last season. Concordia will be led by junior Yuliya Plevako, who compiled a 7-1 record at both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles this season. Plevako was a first team All-Conference pick for the first time in her career after being selected to the second team the past two seasons. The Clippers also feature three second team All-Conference picks in seniors Clara Catanzano and Juliana Frey and junior Ana S.O Mendes. The trio combined to go 20-4 in singles play in the regular-season.

Chestnut Hill (13-2, 7-1 CACC) will be making its second appearance in the tournament and claimed the No. 2 spot. The Griffins fell to Concordia in last season's opening round as the No. 4 seed. Five Griffins posted at least ten individual victories this season. Atop the order is junior first team All-Conference performer, Nastia Shcherbakova, who went was 13-2 at number one singles. Her record was matched at number four singles by freshman Morgan Oechsle, who was an honorable mention All-CACC pick. Junior second team All-CACC selection, Maria Parapouras, led the team with a 14-1 record at number three singles. Sophomore Kelly Dennis claimed an 11-4 record at number two singles and was named to the All-CACC second team. Shcherbakova and Dennis teamed for an 11-4 standing at number one doubles.

Goldey-Beacom (6-2, 6-2 CACC) will be looking for its first-ever CACC title after falling to Concordia in the championship match two years in a row. The No. 3 seed Lightning will be led by the 2011 CACC Player and Rookie of the Year, freshman Stephanie Puentes, who went 7-1 at No. 1 singles. Four of her teammates were selected to the All-Conference team, including second teamers Melanie Bonomo and Marina Sales. Filipa Correia and Blanca Sancho were both Honorable Mention picks. Chestnut Hill and Goldey-Beacom will meet in the opening round Saturday at 1:00 pm, just five days after the Griffins pulled out an exciting 5-4 victory over the Lightning to conclude the regular-season.

Holy Family (9-6, 5-3 CACC) will serve as the fourth seed and will be led by juniors Juliana Victoria and Jin Querubin, who were both named to the All-Conference first team. This season, the duo teamed at number one doubles to register a perfect 8-0 record in conference competition. In three seasons together, they are 43-9 overall at No. 1 doubles. In singles action, Querubin finished conference play with a 7-1 record. She is currently 10-1 overall at second singles and 10-4 in all dual matches. Victoria posted a 6-2 mark in CACC action at the No. 1 spot. The Tigers have qualified for the CACC Tournament each year since its inception in 2005, and won titles in 2006 and 2007. Concordia and Holy Family met once this season in conference action, with the Clippers earning a 7-2 win back on Sept. 10.

The championship match is schedule for Sunday at noon at Concordia. The full tournament schedule is below.

2011 CACC Tennis Championships
Semi-Finals – Saturday, Oct. 22 (at Concordia)
#1 Concordia vs. #4 Holy Family – 10:00 am
#2 Chestnut Hill vs. #3 Goldey-Beacom – 1:00 pm

Saturday, Oct. 23 (at Concordia)
Championship Match
12:00 pm

Courtesy of the CACC

Nuff said...

CACC Champs...

Your Clippers have done it again! Back-to-back CACC Championships and back to back 5-0 wins vs. Philadelphia University in the finals (click here for the box score). Even more impressive is the 64-0 record in CACC individual match play this season. You just can't do better than that. Frankly, I hope we never do it again as I hope that the CACC gets even stronger in the near future. I know that there are some hungry coaches out there looking to challenge us and mirror our success. Of course, it's my job to see that we always stay just a little bit ahead.

In addition, the conference season ending awards were announced after the final match in a brief ceremony. Coach Neil was once again voted Coach of the Year, Andrey was voted Player of the Year, and Dani was voted Rookie of the Year. In addition, Tamas was named second team all CACC and Geza, Andrey, Dani and David were all named first team all CACC. I really believe that any and all of our players could have been named to the all conference squad so please join me and congratulating all of them on a great season.

Next up for us will be St. John's University and Concordia Tennis alum, Coach Eric Rebhuhn, on Monday, 4/25 at home at the Meyers Tennis Center on our campus. I am not sure that Dani will be back in uniform as his injury is still lingering. However, this match will provide some really solid competition for the team and I hope that they play well. We need to stay sharp for the upcoming NCAA tournament.

Hope to see you all soon and have a Happy and Blessed Easter.

Nuff said...

Clippers Defeat Chestnut Hill (CACC Semis)

We are off to Philadelphia once again for the CACC Championship to be held at Chestnut Hill College 4/21 @ 3pm. We will play Philadelphia University.

In order to advance we defeated Chestnut Hill 5-0 bringing our CACC record to 7-0 and 59-0 in CACC individual matches.

Click here for more.

Nuff said...

The CACC has announced it's weekly awards and Andreas has been named the Player of the Week (and perhaps has earned himself a steak dinner) and Ricardo has been named the Rookie of the Week (second week in a row).

So far we have had the POY and ROY in each of the first 4 weeks of the CACC season.

Who is it going to be next week???

By the way, I love my team...and want great things for them.

Nuff said...

POY / ROY...

Good News!

The CACC has announced their Players of the Week and Rookies of the Week for the first two weeks of the spring season and your Clippers have swept the awards.

Week of March 14:

Player of the Week: Tamas Dobrotka
Rookie of the Week: Daniele Piludu

Week of March 21:

Player of the Week: Daniele Piludu
Rookie of the Week: David Tisserand

Match tomorrow vs. CACC opponent Chestnut Hill College. This is our home match at the Meyers Tennis Center with first serve at 3:30pm. Stop by and witness the event.

Also, we welcome the Frey family to Concordia. We are happy to have both Ricardo and Juliana here at the college as student athletes and hope that you enjoy your visit to NY.

Nuff said...

Champions...

Click here for story.

Congratulations and well done.

Nuff said...

CACC Spring All-Academic Team

The CACC has announced its spring All-Academic team (click here for full press release). This year Clipper Andrey Boldarev is one of eight tennis athletes in the conference to be honored. An athlete is recognized if he/she achieves a GPA of 3.5 or higher for the academic year and has attended the member institution for at least two years. According to conference figures, Andrey qualified with a 3.6 for the year. Congratulations to Andrey who excels both on the court and in the classroom.

Nuff said...

CACC Champs!!!

Hop on the Magic Bus and celebrate a CACC Championship. The Clippers traveled to Philadelphia once again and captured the title defeating Philadelphia University 5-0 (click here for boxscore).

This finally completes our undefeated 14-0 conference slate which translates into an overall CACC match record of 117-2, or as I like to call it 117-Dane (I am just saying). Philly U. came to play hard today and we are thankful for that. Coach Cha had the Rams fired up and inspired to give their best effort. That they did. We were able to sweep the doubles, but it certainly was the closest group of pro-sets of our three meetings on the year. Wasting little time, Tamas and Andreas cruised in singles to get us to the finish line in the race to five without yielding a point to our opponents. The Clippers were comfortably ahead on all other courts when the racquets went down signifying the victory.

With the Championship, Concordia will now have an automatic bid into the NCAA II tournament in May. It is expected that we will be the #1 seed in the region and a favorite to return to the National Final 16 in Orlando for the 6th consecutive year.

You have to hand it to the CACC as they kindly presented the team with individual plaques and watches as well as a team banner, trophy and plaque displaying our team photo. In addition, we were treated to cheese steaks after the match at Chubby's. Very tasty indeed and just what I needed after a day full of absolutely no exercise whatsoever.

A special thanks to Magic Bus riders Ivan and Erin. We are so pleased that you guys made the trip to lend support and witness the event. Thanks for all of your love and effort throughout the year. We could not enjoy such success without the contributions of the many folks in the athletic department and we hope to make you all proud going forward.

Next up for the Clippers is the annual athletic banquet tomorrow. This is a special event that allows us to celebrate all athletes and their contributions while representing the school. Congratulations in advance to you all and especially those winning major awards.
It has been a season that I will always remember. I have been so blessed over the years to be associated with so many fine folks, both players and staff. I will not soon forget the opportunity to meet and play a role in so many young people's lives. I hope that I have had a positive impact on this program that has meant so much to me. However, that being said we still have some work left to do this season. I hope that the proper dedication and preparation will lead us to our ultimate goal.
It's about time to say nuff said...
Nuff said...

On to the final...

OK Clipper fans, get ready for the CACC final. We defeated USP for the second time in three days today 6-0 in one of the two CACC semi-final matches (click here for boxscore).

We will travel back to Philadelphia, PA for the CACC final which will be played on the campus of Chestnut Hill College. Philadelphia University, the #2 seed in the tournament, will be our opponent, as they easily defeated Chestnut Hill College 5-0 in today's other semi-final. In case you were wondering, we defeated PU twice already this season by the scores of 8-1 and 9-0.

With a CACC tournament championship, we would receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in May. Of course, being the #1 team in the region, we are a sure bet (D5*L) to receive an at large bid even with an unlikely loss Thursday. In any case, we hope to return to Bronxville with a banner, the watches, a plaque, a trophy and a full stomach courtesy of Pat's King of Steaks.

Today's match was also the last home match for senior Alex Grubin. As usual, he did not disappoint. Alex won both singles and doubles allowing only two games on the day. Join me in congratulating Alex on a great career as a Clipper and lets hope there is more good tennis yet to come culminating in an NCAA II National Championship in May.

Thanks Alex for all of your contributions. Best of luck in the future.

Nuff said...

CACC Tournament Preview...

Tomorrow begins the CACC Men's Tennis post season tournament. Click here for the official tournament preview.

In addition, Raphael Namias was named CACC Player of the Week (Click here for press release).

Nuff said...

10 - 0 CACC...

The weekend ended on a good note with the Clippers registering another 9-0 win over Bloomfield College (click here for boxscore). With the beautiful weather present we played the entire match in the out-of-doors and enjoyed the afternoon.

Today's win completed the season sweep over the Bloomfield racquetmen and brought our CACC record to a clean 10-0. With just two conference matches remaining on the schedule, the Clippers have clinched the regular season title and will have the #1 seed, and thus, the home courts in the CACC tournament semifinal 4/20.

In another nice treat, we had a little post match team pizza and some soccer/volleyball on the tennis court. As the welt on Shoalin's rear end will clearly indicate, it is not fun to lose to Andrey.

We are back on the home courts tomorrow versus Queens College with a early start time of 2:30pm. The Knights boast a 12-1 overall record and are currently ranked #2 in the East Region by the NCAA and the ITA. We are looking forward to the challenge Coach Schwartz will bring to Bronxville.

Hope to see you there. Pass by and say hello to Coach Dano and enjoy the good tennis.

Nuff said...

Daily Double...

We traveled to Philadelphia for two matches today, both of which we won handily. Our long day started at 7:00am with breakfast finely catered by John from the local deli. Of course, he was just slightly late with the food so we got on the road a bit behind schedule. We arrived at Philadelphia University for our morning match in time to get in a brief warm-up, and naturally, Coach Neil's inspirational speech. Still stinging from Thursday's tough loss, we got off to a quick start and never looked back, scoring a 9-0 win over the Rams (click here for boxscore).

Importantly, the doubles was a bit improved and we got back to making the good choices. We will need to continue that practice if we expect to succeed at the national level.

After a short lunch break, we were off to nearby Chestnut Hill College. Thanks to the GPS, and some decent written directions, we were able to find the courts located on this beautiful campus loaded with lovely spring foliage.

Even though we had easily defeated CHC just a week ago in Bronxville, the netmen from the Hill, really came to play and gave a very strong and respectable effort today. An effort that this coach certainly appreciated, took notice of and wishes all other CACC teams mirrored. However, our talent eventually overwhelmed their enthusiasm and we completed the match with an 8-1 win (click here for boxscore). Unfortunately, Dane was the lone unlucky loser on the day at #6 singles as he ran into a tough opponent this afternoon. This time out, Dane had a little trouble controlling the topspin, the topspin...

We were also treated to a nice BBQ that some CHC parents hosted during and after the match. Many thanks to those folks, who were extremely kind and generous to our group. They certainly added to our experience and made the day more enjoyable. Thanks again!


We return to the home courts tomorrow to face CACC opponent Bloomfield College. First serve is scheduled for 11:00am. We continue to be undefeated in the CACC with a 9-0 record in our inaugural season and hope to continue the streak tomorrow. Hope to see you all there and don't forget to stop by and say hello to Coach Dano.

Nuff said...

Sailing to Philadelphia...

We are off to Philadelphia this morning to take on CACC foe The University of the Sciences. We will get on the road at 11:30am for the three hour drive and hope for minimal traffic so as to make the match at 3:00pm. I am not sure that the match time will eclipse the driving time.

We look to go 5-0 in the CACC...



Wish us luck.

Nuff said...

Streaking...

Good day and sorry for the delay. A little neck strain has kept me away from the computer. However, I know you all have been eagerly awaiting a post keeping you abreast of the recent happenings.

Philadelphia University visited Bronxville 3/27 and were rudely sent home with an 8-1 defeat (click here for the box score). After sweeping the doubles easily, we let Andrey and Alex sit out the singles and thus challenged the balance of the lineup to step up and win at higher spots. This proved not to be a problem as most everyone won in easy fashion. Not sure my buddy and Philly's head coach Cha Goods appreciated that we sat Alex and Andrey but you gotta earn the right to play Mr. Grubin and Mr. Boldarev by fielding a competitive squad when you show up to play and witness the Clippers...

The day after we traveled to Brookdale Park in NJ to battle Bloomfield College, another CACC powerhouse. Fielding a squad of fully funded soccer players, the Bloomfield racquetmen were defeated 9-0 (click her for box score) in, what I believe to be a record time, 51 minutes from handshake to handshake. It was nice to have the rest of the weekend off I must say...

These big wins propelled Felix Missal to be named CACC Player of the Week and Andreas Lindell CACC Rookie of the Week. Congrats to both players.

In our third match in 5 days Post University came to Bronxville. Post, another CACC foe, was also sent home with a 9-0 loss (click here for results).

I gotta say however, we have been pleasantly greeted with nothing but the best sportsmanship from our new opponents in the CACC and look forward to a wonderful future and a rediculously long winning streak in the conference, as long as I have anything to do with Concordia Tennis.

Tomorrow 4/3 we will take on Chestnut Hill College, another CACC opponent at home with a 1:30pm start. I hope to see you there. As always, stop in and say hello to ol' coach Dano. Former Clipper netman Henning Rrrrrrruenz is in the area and will be in attendance. Perhaps even a steak dinner in the future...

Be well all and Happy Easter!

Nuff said...

Happy St. Patrick's Day...

Hold on to your hats Clipper fans, the season, and the hunt for my last piece of the puzzle...the NCAA National Championship is about the resume next week. As a result, see below for the upcoming match schedule:

Thursday, March 25th vs. Fairleigh Dickinson University 3:00pm

Friday, March 26th vs. Caldwell College* 3:00pm

Saturday, March 27th vs. Philadelphia University* 2:30pm

Sunday, March 28th at Bloomfield College* 11:00am

* - CACC (Conference) Match

The good news is that God has blessed us with some beautiful early spring weather which is much appreciated by tennis players and also those enduring the damaging storm that downed trees, power lines and sent my neighbor's patio furniture to my front lawn. With any luck, the tree that fell onto the third court outdoors will be removed shortly. In addition, I understand that former Clippers and current neighbors Sergiu Barbu and Rohan Malhotra have no power service yet and that my favorite German Shepherd Matrix is wearing a sweatshirt about the house.

In some other news...

A very Happy Birthday to former Clipper Vish Varghese aka Charlie, aka Charles, aka 56. Congrats and be well.

A second Happy Birthday wish to my niece Abby who is a St. Patrick's Day baby.

Lastly, wishing you all a very Happy St. Patrick's Day. Enjoy the spirit of the day and be safe. As for me, I gave up the green beer a long time ago...I will be wearing my green Kentucky Basketball shirt today however...Go CATS!!!

Nuff said...