VOORHEESVILLE — The Voorheesville girls’ tennis team threw a surprise party for their coach Tom Kurkjian.

The party took place at the Class B Section II tournament finals on Oct. 12 and the gift was the Blackbirds second consecutive championship.
"It was a total surprise," Kurkjian said. "Last year, we graduated two of our top three players and the other I had, her family moved to the state of Washington. I thought we were a year away from winning again."

Kurkjian had to re-work his starting line-up to fill all the empty slots.

Lexi Burtman was the number-one player for Voorheesville all season. But, after that, Kurkjian had to move players into unfamiliar roles.

Jackie Daley moved into the number-two position after being slotted for the fourth spot. Alex Childs was number five but moved up to the number-three singles-player spot. Allie McArdle had been the number-two player and Lauren Watson had the number-three position before injuries ended their seasons.

Nazaly Kurkjian, who had been a doubles player, moved to the number-four singles slot and Leanne Glaser moved into the number-five singles.
"My number two and three were injured," Coach Kurkjian said. "So, in sectionals, I was playing with my one, four, five, six, and seven players and four other girls, two of whom were not starters. It was interesting."

The young team — none of the players are seniors, brought home the repeat championship with a four-and-a-half to two-and-a-half win over Cobleskill-Richmondville in a match held at the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill.

Burtman lost her match, but Daley, Childs, and Kurkjian won their singles matches.

The doubles team of Jackie Lansbury, a first-year player, and Courtney Clark, a transfer from Cortland, won their doubles match to help clinch the win. Brittney Albright and Nell Pritchard split their doubles match.

Ciatta Genasari played on a doubles team in the sectional semifinals.
"A lot of the girls are close playing-wise," Kurkjian said. "I rotated three girls into the number-five and second doubles."

The Blackbirds beat Catskill, 6-1, in the semifinals. Cobleskill beat Chatham in the other semifinal match.

Looking ahead

The Voorheesville team will be going for its third straight title next year with most of the players returning.

McArdle and Watson are juniors and Burtman is a 10th-grader. Daley is a ninth-grader; Childs is a junior; Nazely Kurkjian is a ninth-grader; and Glaser is a junior.
"We have a lot of girls coming back and they will improve over the summer," Kurkjian said. "We’ll have a real battle for singles spots next year."

Though they won the Class B championship, the Blackbirds finished second in their own league.

Voorheesville came in second behind Holy Names, which handed the Birds their only loss this season.
"Holy Names was better than us," Kurkjian said. "But hopefully, we can win a league title and now a three-peat is in the cards."

Allie Glaser, Fanie Liu, Lara Lorman, and Kathleen McArdle were also on the team this year and made some improvements during the year, Kurkjian said.
"They can maybe have a slot in second doubles," Kurkjian said.

A handful of Voorheesville players took part in the individual sectionals that determined who played in the state tournament.

Burtman and Daley went as singles players and both lost early in the tournament. Burtman lost to the number-one player from Amsterdam and Daley lost to the number-one player from Colonie.

Lansbury and Childs went as a doubles team but lost to a team from Guilderland. Nazaly Kurkjian and Genasari lost to a team from Scotia in a doubles tournament.

Coach Kurkjian was helped again this season by Donna Russel, who had a couple of daughters who were top-notch players compete for Voorheesville.
"It’s nice to have her to help me out with the program," said Kurkjian.

Kurkjian said that his players will put in the time during the off-season to get better.
"Almost all of the girls will play over the summer and improve," the coach said. "That’s a testimony to the girls. You can’t just have seasonal players. You’re not going to win in tennis if you don’t have girls that play almost year-round."