By Emma Deo
Plattsburgh State Cardinals’ women’s tennis made their first SUNYAC playoff appearance since 2017, but fell to the top-seeded New Paltz Hawks in the first round.
New Paltz pulled away with the 4-0 win as they were victorious at No. 4 singles, No. 5 singles, and No. 6 singles. The No. 2 doubles match was unfinished, but the doubles team of senior Hallie Hurwitz and junior Kristy Cantwell was able to take the sole Cardinal win for the match.
“It’s always a big mental game when we’re playing them because you know it’s going to be a brutal match from the jump, but I think the mindset has changed from we’re gonna get beat really bad to let’s just give it all we got and see what happens,” head coach Kelci Henn said.
Cantwell said the team was extremely proud of themselves for making it to the tournament and having the opportunity to show who they are.
Tennis playoffs follow a different structure than other SUNYAC sports, as teams play their regular season in the fall and then resume with playoffs in the spring. The schedule was switched because the NCAA tennis tournament is played in the spring, so the coaches said they wanted to move SUNYAC playoffs to match.
“It’s definitely weird because you’re on the high for making playoffs and you have to wait months to go play, and we had a whole break and everything, but it just meant that we needed to get that same dedication back in the second season,” Cantwell said.
The Cards will lose four total seniors to graduation — Megan Phelps who graduated in the winter, Andrea Bingham, Sophia Gottschall and Hurwitz who will all graduate in the spring.
“It was an emotional day from the start, they were just so proud of themselves. It was tough, because with this split season we had a senior (Phelps) that helped us get to the playoffs in the fall, then she graduated, so she didn’t get to play, but she was there to support us. The emotions were there and it was just a really good day,” Henn said.
Moving forward, the team is looking to continue this tradition of success they are building at Plattsburgh State. Despite the first round loss, the Cards only lost three of their matches to the Hawks, compared to the second-seeded Oswego Lakers who played New Paltz in the championship, dropping six out of nine matches to the eventual SUNYAC champions.
This was New Paltz’ third consecutive SUNYAC championship, marking the 23rd year in a row that they made a playoff appearance and their 10th championship overall.
As announced by the SUNY New Paltz athletic department, the Hawks will leave the SUNYAC in the 2026-2027 academic year and join the New Jersey Athletic Conference, changing the landscape of women’s tennis.
“Our goal is to still uphold that standard that New Paltz set,” Henn said. “Together as a conference, all of us tennis coaches are trying to really keep that level of play. Whether that’s incorporating more into our lifts or really getting into it in our practices and dialing in but I have no doubts that that’s going to happen. The players are all just as invested now that we’ve got a taste of it, we want more.”
