Shaker High School junior Cat Crummey competes against Emma Willard's Claire Schmitz during Tuesday's Section II individual final. Crummey won her second straight Section II title, 6-3, 6-3. (Photos by Mike McMahon - The Record).

SCHENECTADY — The perfect season isn’t over quite yet for the Shaker High School girls tennis team, but it got that much sweeter Tuesday afternoon.

Shaker junior Cat Crummey defeated Emma Willard freshman Claire Schmitz in the Section II individual championship match, 6-3, 6-3, claiming her second straight Section II individual title at Sportime.

Shaker’s first doubles team of junior Catherine Jenkins and freshman Shannon Mukerji, the No. 2 seeded entry, defeated Emma Willard’s top-seeded duo of Molly Goodman and Mitali Das, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, as the Blue Bison claimed the Section II doubles title as well.

It marked the first time since 2002 that a school has captured both the individual singles and doubles champions in Section II. Shaker did that in 2002 (Amanda O’Hearn; Emily Emerick & Joshleen Sandhu) and also in 2001 (O’Hearn; Emerick & Kim Paul).

For video highlights from Tuesday's action, visit www.troyrecord.com/video/sports

The Blue Bison hit the trifecta with the Section II team title in both of those years as well, something Shaker has a shot at in 2010. Emma Willard and undefeated Shaker (12-0) will square off for the Section II Class AA team title Thursday at 2 p.m. in Schenectady’s Central Park.

“It’s amazing having five girls here and Cat winning and us too,” said Jenkins. “It’s really great and the school is really supportive of what we do.”

Shaker High School junior Catherine Jenkins competes in the Section II doubles championship Tuesday at Sportime in Schenectady.

Crummey, who did not lose a set in sectional competition this year, will return to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament for the third straight season. She was the Section II singles champion in 2009 and played on the second-place doubles team in 2008 along with Ali Coyle.

Tuesday’s championship match pitted her against Emma Willard’s Schmitz, who plays with Crummey in team tennis in the high school offseason.

“Claire and I are good friends, so it was fun to play against her. She’s a good player,” Crummey said. “It was definitely a match that I had to focus and play my game at.”

Schmitz, who will make her second straight trip to the state meet, as she placed third overall last year after losing to Crummey in semifinals, could not be all that mad after falling to her friend Crummey again in 2010.

“It doesn’t make it as tragic. It’s like, you know, she’s not meaning any harm, I guess,” Schmitz, at left, laughed.

In consolation action, Guilderland’s Gaby Peda, the No. 4 seed, upset Shenendehowa’s Jessica Macaluso, the No. 3 seed, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to claim third place and a trip to the state tournament.

In doubles, the No. 7 seeded team from Shenendehowa, Taru Greene and Kristen Brayden, defeated Shaker’s No. 8 ranked team of Eleana Wolner and Molly O’Conner, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to clinch third place and a berth in the state tournament.

The New York State tournament begins Nov. 6 at the East Side Racquet Club in Manlius.
Jenkins and Mukerji, who had never played doubles together until one week ago Monday, played an entertaining match in the doubles championship.

Emma Willard’s team of Das and Goodman took an early lead in the first set, but the Blue Bison stormed back to record a 6-4 triumph. The Jesters won the second match, but Jenkins and Mukerji adjusted their strategy and held on for the decisive 6-1 third set victory.

“I have a nasty habit of having to come back from huge deficits, so I think I kind of passed that on,” said Jenkins. “But we just really tried to focus and get it done and we were lucky enough to have that happen.”

“You can be down 5-0 or 40-love and you can always come back,” Mukerji said. “You can never give up in tennis.”

Shaker High School freshman Shannon Mukerji competes in the Section II doubles final Tuesday at Sportime.

Section II individual finals

Singles championship: (1) Crummey (Shaker) def. (2) Schmitz (Emma Willard), 6-3, 6-3.
Singles consolation: (4) Peda (Guilderland) def. (3) Macaluso (Shenendehowa), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Doubles championship: (2) Jenkins & Mukerji (Shaker) def. (1) Das & Goodman (Emma Willard), 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
Doubles consolation: (7) Greene & Brayden (Shenendehowa) def. (8) Wolner & O’Conner (Shaker), 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

• Notes:  Nitty Singh, owner of the New York Buzz World Team Tennis club, was among those in attendance at Tuesday's Section II finals. She made personal pitches to the finalists, hoping they would perform demonstrations prior to Buzz matches in the future. It would be an interesting way to promote Section II tennis.

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It's going to be an exciting week ahead. Here is a partial list of events to watch. Did we miss anything?

Sunday: The Section II field hockey brackets will be released. Check back for more details here on Sunday.

Monday: A pair of regular season championships will be on the line.
The Cambridge girls (10-2-1, 11-3-1) travel to Schaghticoke to take on Hoosic Valley (11-2-0, 13-2-0) in the Wasaren League finale. Hoosic Valley, which has never won a Wasaren League regular season title in school history, can clinch first place outright with a win or tie.

In Troy, the Troy High boys (13-0-0, 14-0-0), who have allowed just two goals all season, host Albany High (12-1-0, 14-1-0) in the Big 10 Conference finale. Troy can clinch its first regular season championship since 1994 with a win or tie.


Tuesday: The boys and girls soccer brackets will be released, which is always an exciting day. I will post those up in Bracketmaker as soon as I can get them on the site Tuesday.

Also, the Section II girls tennis tournament wraps up Tuesday at Sportime in Schenectady.

The top four seeds in the singles tournament will square off Monday afternoon in semifinals..

No. 1 Cat Crummy (Shaker) will play No. 4 Gaby Peda (Guilderland).
No. 2 Claire Schmitz (Emma Willard) will play No. 3 Jessica Macaluso (Shenendehowa).

In doubles action,
No. 1 Mitali Das and Molly Goodman (Emma Willard) will play No. 8 Elena Wolner and Molly O'Conner (Shaker).
No. 2 Catherine Jenkins and Shannon Mukerji (Shaker) will play No. 7 Tara Greene and Kristen Brayden (Shenendehowa).

Don't forget the Patroon Conference cross country championships at Saratoga Spa State Park.

Wednesday:The Big 10 Conference cross country championships will be run at Saratoga Spa State Park.

Thursday: The Section II girls volleyball brackets will be released. Again, look for those in Bracketmaker form here sometime Thursday.

Don't forget the Wasaren League cross country championships at Saratoga Spa State Park.

Friday: The Section II football semifinals start, with an interesting matchup in Lansingburgh (the Knights host Bishop Maginn) and a great game in Rotterdam, as Schalmont hosts Albany Academy.

Don't forget the Colonial Council cross country championships at Saratoga Spa State Park.

Saturday: Section II semifinal football action continues with Nisky at Troy and Fonda tangling with Hoosick Falls at Stillwater High School.

Don't forget the Suburban Council cross country championships at Saratoga Spa State Park.

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Shaker High School's Shannon Mukerji (foreground) and Catherine Jenkins (background) take the court in the Section II individual girls tennis tournament's opening round Tuesday morning at Schenectady's Central Park. (Photos by Mike McMahon - The Record).

SCHENECTADY -- For the Emma Willard School’s Mitali Das and Molly Goodman, along with Shaker’s Catherine Jenkins and Shannon Mukerji, the Section II girls tennis tournament is doubly challenging. Not only are they going up against the best talent in the area, they’re playing doubles for the first time this season.

Those four players are some of the best singles players in the area during the regular season, but when the season-ending individual tournament rolls around, their coaches have decided to pair them up as doubles teams.

"Jerry (Cuva, Shaker head coach) kind of told us ‘you guys are playing together’ and we were like, cool!" said Jenkins, pictured at left. "There really is no planning to it."

"Yesterday was the first time we played together," said Mukerji, pictured at right.


"So we’re just trying it out," Jenkins continued. "And we work pretty well together."

Jenkins and Mukerji entered the start of Tuesday’s individual competition as the No. 2 seed behind the Emma Willard duo of Das and Goodman, who also were joined together as a doubles team just for this tournament.

"Me and Mitali are friends, so that worked out nicely," said Goodman, a junior and a native of Schenectady, pictured below right. "Doubles is almost a completely different game than singles, so you almost have to like get used to different dynamics and different strategies."

Das, at left, a sophomore this year, and her older sister, Shibani, placed second in the doubles tournament in 2009.
Both teams certainly worked together well Tuesday, as they won first and second round matches by perfect 8-0 scores.

Mukerji, Goodman and Das stated that they were in part introduced to the sport by older sisters who had helped teach them about the game.

"I started beating her this summer," Mukerji laughed. "Before that, she would always crush me. We’re close."

Jenkins, who had attended the Albany Academy for Girls before transferring to Shaker as a freshman, saw tennis as a natural extension of her love for squash.

"I started playing when I was a younger kid, but when I came to Shaker, it was a new school and I wanted to be able to make friends pretty quickly so I decided to play tennis seriously," she said. "I’ve been playing squash since I was about six or seven years old, so that’s how I got started playing tennis."

These doubles teams may be on a collision course for the Section II individual championship match, but they may meet again as singles after that. Shaker has already advanced to the Section II Class AA team title match, but the semifinal between Shenendehowa and Emma Willard was postponed by rain last Thursday and will be made up sometime in the near future, depending on how the weather determines the outcome of the individual tournament. Play was briefly suspended early Tuesday morning after drizzle on the cold courts caused a slippery and unsafe surface.

Despite their lack of experience playing together, the Shaker duo is hoping to follow the long tradition of success the Blue Bison have had in singles competition.

For video highlights from Tuesday's action, visit www.troyrecord.com.video/sports

"Our team is really competitive, so everyone trains really hard over the summer to try to get a good spot on the team," said Jenkins. "You know everyone else on your team is a really confident player, so you don’t feel any pressure during matches to win."

"You know everyone is working hard, so you want to work harder to stay above. We push each other," Mukerji said.

Shaker High freshman Shannon Mukerji lines up a shot during play in the opening round of the Section II girls tennis tournament Tuesday at Schenectady's Central Park. (McMahon photo).

Section II Singles Tournament

The top two singles seeds in the 2010 tournament are also from Shaker and Emma Willard.

Shaker’s Cat Crummey, the defending Section II individual champion, is the No. 1 seed. Emma Willard’s Claire Schmitz, who finished No. 3 in the tournament a season ago, is the No. 2 seed.

Crummey won a pair of 8-0 matches Tuesday. Schmitz won her first match 8-1, followed by an 8-0 second round victory.

The top three singles players and the top three doubles teams advance to the New York State Tournament, which begins Nov. 6 at Eastside Racquet Club in Manlius.

Shaker has won 12 Section II singles titles since 1991, with players such as Kristen Odabashian, Amanda O’Hearn, Sarah Mayer and Jasleen Sandhu carrying the torch before Crummey.

And with a pair of doubles teams in the field, the Blue Bison are hoping for a Section II title sweep in 2010.

"Your objective is to get your players to the state championship," Cuva said. "That’s how you have a better shot. I have my No. 2 and 3 players and my No. 4 and 5 playing together as doubles."

Section II doubles and singles quarterfinal action continues today at Central Park beginning at 3 p.m. The semifinals and finals will be played Monday and Tuesday at Sportime in Schenectady.

Emma Willard School sophomore Mitali Das follows through on a shot during doubles play in the Section II girls tennis tournament Tuesday at Schenectady's Central Park. (McMahon photo - The Record).

Members of the Catholic Central High School tennis team, from left to right, Molly Scanlon, Taylor Murphy and Taylor Adams, bundle up against the cold Tuesday morning. A brief drizzle caused play to be suspended around 10:15 a.m. (McMahon photo - The Record).

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Individual play for Section II girls tennis is schedule to start Tuesday at Central Park in Schenectady at 8:15 a.m.

Quarterfinals are scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday at Central Park with semifinals and finals at Sportime Schenectady Monday and Tuesday the 25th and 26, beginning at 2 p.m.

In singles there are 68 entries with 72 entries for doubles.

The top singles seeds are:
1. Cat Crummey, Shaker
2. Claire Schmitz, Emma Willard
3. Jessica Macaciak, Shen
4. Gaby Peda, Guilderland
5. Kirsten Ackerman, Guilderland
6. Amanda Rosati, Holy Names
7. Emily Lauvilliard, Niskayuna
8. Rachel Friedman, Saratoga

Doubles seeds are:
1. Mitali Das/Molly Goodman, Emma Willard
2. Catherine Jenkins/Shannon Mukerji, Shaker
3. Nicole Kellogg/Natasha Hale, Burnt Hills
4. Jamie Rosen/Aria Shi, Bethlehem
5. Rachael Ellenbogen/Kacie Weatherhead, Guilderland
6. Luise Forster/Ashley Becker, Albany Academy
7. Teru Greene/Kristen Brayden, Shen
8. Elena Wolner/Molly Oconnor, Shaker

Class B and C/D team sectionals have concluded. Ichabod Crane won the B's over Schalmont, 6-1, while Maple Hill won the C/D's over Voorheesville, 5-2.

The A final is scheduled to be completed at 3 p.m. Monday between Holy Names and Burnt Hills. The AA has a semifinal and final to be completed later this week.

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Section II girls tennis team sectionals begin play on Tuesday. All matches are scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m..


In class AA, Schenectady is at Ballston Spa, with the winner to play at Shaker on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, Niskayuna is at Guilderland, Bethelhem is at Shenendehowa and Saratoga is at Emma Willard. The finals are scheduled for Friday at Central Park in Schenectady.

In class A, on Tuesday, Mohonasen is at South Glens Falls, with the winner to play at Holy Names on Wednesday. Averill Park is at Albany Academy, with the winner to play at Burnt Hills. On Wednesday, Glens Falls is at Scotia-Glenville and Amsterdam is at Queensbury. The finals are scheduled for Friday at Central Park.

In class B, on Tuesday, Catholic Central is at Schalmont. The winner will play Ichabod Crane on Thursday at Maple Hill.

In class C/D, on Tuesday, Greenwich is at Schoharie, Coxsackie-Athens is at Voorheesville and North Warren is at Chatham. Maple Hill has a bye and will play the winner of the Greenwich-Schoharie match. The finals are scheduled for Thursday at Albany Academy.

Individual sectionals are scheduled for Tuesday October 19 at Central Park Schenectady. Play will begin at 8:15 a.m..

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