VOORHEESVILLE — Another year, another championship for the Voorheesville girls’ tennis team.

For the fourth year in a row, the Lady Blackbirds have won a Section II championship. The Blackbirds won a title in either Class C or Class B for the past four falls. A drop-off in student enrollment bounced Voorheesville back down to Class C this season, after the Blackbirds won the Class B title last year.

Voorheesville beat a tough Maple Hill team, 4-3, last Wednesday.
"This one was a tough one," said Voorheesville Coach Tom Kurkjian. "We had six three-set matches and we were down in both our number two and three singles matches."

But both singles matches went to Voorheesville as players swept the top-four singles matches to win the championship.

Lexi Burtman won her match at the number-one spot. She won in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Jackie Daly won her match in the number-two singles. She came from behind to beat her Maple Hill opponent, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Nazely Kurkjian, the coach’s daughter, won the number-three singles match also in come-from-behind fashion. Kurkjian won 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.

Siana Janesari won her match in the number-four singles to clinch the championship for the Lady Blackbirds. Janesari won 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.

Nell Pritchard dropped her match in the number-five singles in two sets.

The Voorheesville double teams also lost their matches both in three sets.

The team of Brittany Albright and Fannie Liu lost, 3-6, 7-6, 4-6. The number-two doubles team of Kathleen McArdle and Lara Norman lost their match, 6-7, 6-2, 1-6.

The Blackbirds beat Greenwich in the semifinals, 7-0, early last week.
"What is interesting with this win," Coach Kurkjian said of the championship, "is that we lost four seniors and three of them were singles players. The other was a doubles player. With that loss, other kids had to bring a decent level of play.
"Moving down to C’s I thought would make it a little easier," Kurkjian added. "But teams like Maple Hill are strong and well coached."

Kurkjian said his team had been playing well, but Maple Hill came out and put up a challenge and almost took the match from the Blackbirds.
"Certainly, if we kept playing the way we did, the match would have been lopsided," the coach said.

Looking ahead

Kurkjian will have to do some re-organizing of his line-up as he will lose some key players to graduation.
"We lost our number-one in Lexi Burtman," Kurkjian said. "She’s been our number-one for three years in a row. Number-one is a tough position to play. Teams like Holy Names and Albany Academy for Girls have year-round players. Lexi is a good player."

Pritchard will also graduate this year.

The two through four players this year will have to step up a spot for next year. Kurkjian feels confident that the players he has coming back will do that.

The year after that will be an even bigger question.
"Nine of the girls are in the same class," Kurkjian said. "I could be left with no people. I’ll have to push the gym teachers to get them involved in tennis. It’s a sport that can be played year-round and it is a life-long sport."

Kurkjian said he has never had anything like that happen to him before.
"We have had high-highs but never any low-lows," he said. "Before, it’s been win a title then be OK. But this year, I had one underclassmen and all the rest were juniors. But anything can happen."

Returning next year for Kurkjian will be Leah Simpson, Moira O’Donnell, Kortney Meyers, Jordan McCollum, and Armine Kurkjian.

"An interesting season"

The Lady Blackbirds lost just three matches as a team this fall. Voorheesville lost to Class B champion Albany Academy for Girls and to Holy Names, a finalist in Class A.

Voorheesville also lost to Ravena in a match where the Blackbirds were missing two starters.
"The losses we had were quality teams," Kurkjian said. "It was an interesting season. Greenwich came down and thought they had a shot in the final. They beat Maple Hill [during the season]. And Maple Hill was a surprising match. They are a good team and cause us anxiety."

Burtman and Daly are competing in the Section II individual singles tournament this week. Janasari and Nazely Kurkjian are competing as a doubles team at the tournament.

Tom Kurkjian has players on his team who have never lost a sectional match and Burtman is the first player Kurkjian has coached to win four sectional titles.

What is more amazing about the feat is that, at a small school like Voorheesville, kids come and kids go.
"At a small school, there is a lot of turnover," Kurkjian said." As good as my boys’ teams used to be, I never had a run of more than two or three. You get a group of friends that all come out and then they all graduate. I’m happy for the girls. It’s an accomplishment."