Ithaca College considers cutting several women’s club sports teams

By Katie Bataille

ITHACA – Ithaca College recently discussed cutting some women’s club sports teams in an effort to work toward achieving gender equity in athletic opportunity at the school.

Right now, the school has 38 club sports teams. Eliminating clubs such as field hockey, women’s soccer, women’s basketball and softball would theoretically create the opportunity to launch junior varsity teams for those sports.

“At one of our gender equity meetings it was mentioned that consideration could be given to not offering club sports in some women’s sports that were being discussed as possible candidates for junior varsity level teams,” said Ken Kutler, director of intercollegiate athletics and recreational sports at Ithaca College, in an e-mail message.

The school currently has three junior varsity boy’s teams but no teams at the junior varsity level for girls, said Dr. Ellen Staurowsky, a fulltime professor of sport management, and the chair of the graduate sport management program at Ithaca College. Staurowsky is also part of the gender equity committee.

Although adding junior varsity opportunities seems to be aimed at bringing the school closer to Title IX compliance, cutting existing women’s teams in favor creating new, higher level competition teams won’t advance that goal, Staurowsky said.

Title IX, a piece of legislation passed in 1972, requires that all federally funded programs be equitable for both males and females, including athletics.

“If the reason why we’re adding those JV programs is that we don’t want to bear a larger expense in funding varsity programs,” Staurowsky said, “then that actually does not satisfy Title IX compliance. Essentially, it kind of holds an institution accountable.”

In the case of the women’s soccer club, to trim that team in order to produce a junior varsity squad, would also be to eliminate a fair portion of the competition that currently exists with other schools.

“In a very strange twist of fate, if the institution goes this way they actually will be denying female athletes the opportunity to play,” Staurowsky said. “To go from a 15 game schedule down to 5 or 6, all in what’s supposed to be in the name of equity, I think there’s something that’s very wrong with that calculation.

“I sincerely know of no other institution that would discourage, or come up with a specific policy, that would bar female students who wanted to organize a club activity,” Staurowsky said. “I know of no other institution in the country that has moved to do something like that just because they were adding more opportunities for women in the athletic department.”

Both Kutler and Brad Buchanan, assistant director of intercollegiate athletics and recreational sports, emphasize that this is nothing more than an idea, which hasn’t taken any substantive form.

“There haven’t been a lot of decisions made,” Buchanan said in a voice message. “Things have gone all over the place.”

Club sports have dramatically risen in popularity over the past decade. Approximately two million college students participate in a club sport across the country. Comparatively, only about 430,000 students are involved in athletics run by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Many club sports athletes like the appeal of a lenient schedule and a laid-back atmosphere found with club competition.

“You’re not stressed about coming to practice for three hours and then going home and trying to do work,” said Vanesa Samuda, an Ithaca College sophomore who plays club basketball. “It’s like a best-of-both-worlds type of thing, which works for me.”

Members of these club teams raise money to sustain themselves, and rely very little on college funds.

“We have dues every year, usually between $30-$40 a person, and there’s usually 20 people on the team,” said Rebecca Gross, president of the club field hockey team. “And we try to do fundraisers. This year we’re doing a raffle, in years past we’ve done gift card giveaways, just to raise money for the team.”

Staurowsky also points out that, while club sports are run by students and funded through student fundraising, those students also help run the entire athletic department.

“All of these women who are participating in club activities are actually funding the athletic department because the athletic department is primarily funded by tuition,” Staurowsky said. “And given the fact that we have 54 percent female enrollment, that means that a majority of our women on campus are providing financial support for all of these activities.”

This, in part, adds to the frustration level felt by some women who participate on a club team, many who say they wouldn’t try out for a junior varsity or varsity team if their club was cut.

“[Varsity] is a huge time commitment and it’s not as fun,” Gross said. “You don’t get the same amount of playing time. But on the club team we’re in a really competitive league, we’re not just messing around. There’s no coach to yell at you and it’s really fun.”

“[Club] is still competitive but it’s not five days a week, every single day and stressful,” Samuda said. “So it’s confusing to me. I’d honestly be devastated if they got rid of it because it’s like our outlet. If the opportunity presented itself [to play varsity], I wouldn’t.”

For now, the teams will stay as they are.

“There has not been any follow-up on this notion [of dismantling the teams],” said Buchanan.

Ithaca College considers cutting several women’s club sports teams

In an effort to offer the same junior varsity athletic opportunities to women as it does men, Ithaca College is considering cutting some women’s sports club teams. At this point, the topic has only been discussed, and no final decisions have been made at this time.

Swimming upstream: Conservatives try to make the voices heard in Ithaca

Zachary Tomanelli

ITHACA – Alienation. As a vocal conservative in a liberal college town, Mark Finkelstein knows the feeling all too well.
He remembers one of the first times he experienced it. The year was 1991 and Finkelstein had just revealed to three of his longtime tennis partners that he was running for mayor of Ithaca as a Republican.
“When I announced that I was running for mayor, they presented me with this letter saying they could no longer play with me because they were supporting my opponent,” Finkelstein said.
Since then, Finkelstein has come to embrace his conservatism going as far to host and produce “Right Angle,” a conservative-oriented public access talk show. Still, he says it is hard not to feel like an outsider in a city like Ithaca.
“It may be something as trivial as walking across the supermarket parking lot— particularly during the Bush years— and just seeing all the anti-Bush or anti-Republican bumper stickers.”
While some may attribute Finkelstein’s claim of Ithaca being a “far-left” town as a conservative crying foul, the facts are on his side.
According to the Tompkins County Board of Elections, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 6,794 to 1,379 in the city of Ithaca—a nearly six to one enrollment advantage. A Republican presidential candidate hasn’t carried Tompkins County since 1980.
These numbers are especially problematic for local conservative Janis Kelly. That is because Kelly is the chairwoman of the City of Ithaca Republican Party. And while she said this job presents her with some unique challenges, Kelly also said she tries to approach the whole thing with a sense of humor.
“It’s kind of entertaining,” said Kelly. “The sheer zaniness of what passes for political thought and discourse among so many people in Ithaca is an unfailing source of amusement.”
Still, as chair of the local Republican party, the challenge Kelly faces is very real. According to the Board of Elections, there hasn’t been a contested local election in the City of Ithaca since 2003, something Kelly is charged with changing.
“I think people are eager to hear the argument on the other side, including in Ithaca,” said Kelly. “Going forward, we are going to contest everything, and we are going to, in much more public ways, put forth a lot of our principles and viewpoints.”
But even Finkelstein admits that getting a Republican elected in Ithaca is a difficult task. When he ran mayor, Finkelstein received 46 percent of the vote — an outcome he sees as unimaginable today.
“Why would you run, except for totally symbolic value,” Finkelstein said.
Even so, Kelly said she sees the lack of political diversity as something that is becoming detrimental to the city.
“The way our city and state government is running now is not sustainable,” Kelly said. “We are going to end up like California.”
Scott Smolinski has also had the experience of being a political minority. Smolinski is the president of the Ithaca College Republicans. Smolinski says he believes the campus tilts leftward, but said he doesn’t think it has adversely affected his studies or his social life. The only difference, he said, is that he is asked to defend his positions more frequently that some his liberal peers.
“If you present a conservative viewpoint in a class discussion you’re asked to defend yourself — people say, ‘Why would you say something like that?’ ” Smolinski said.
Smolinski said he believes there are actually a number of conservatives at Ithaca College, but that many of them are reluctant to say so.
Kelly said she has found a similar phenomena in the greater Ithaca area.
“What I am finding over the last year, is there are a lot people here who are not registered in either party,” Kelly said.
She said hopes to reach those voters on key issues, in an effort rejuvenate the Republican Party in Ithaca. But some of that rejuvenation, Kelly pointed out, would have to begin on the national level.
“What is happening with the Republican Party, I’m afraid, is that the people at the top of the party still don’t get it,” Kelly said. “The people at the top of the Republican Party have dropped the ball. They have turned away from constitutional government. They have turned away from principles like self reliance and small government.”
Finkelstein and Smolinski echoed those sentiments.
“I think the base is ahead of the leadership,” Finkelstein said. “I think there is a very principled base that believes very strongly in a political philosophy.”
Smolinski said he feels the party is becoming inundated with so-called RINOs, or “Republicans In Name Only.” He said he’d like to see the party move in a more conservative direction.
And while the nature of their party is still very much up in the air, all three expressed optimism about the future — especially Kelly.
“I am enormously optimistic about people on the grassroots level.”

Video: Mark Finkelstein talks about “Right Angle” as it heads into its 10th year.

Paleontological Research Institution receives nearly $500,000 in grant money

By Katie Bataille

ITHACA – More than 1.5 million historic specimens and fossils aren’t going to store themselves – something the Paleontological Research Institution has learned the hard way on several occasions since its inception in 1932.

Enter National Science Foundation. Between 1994 and 2004, the NSF granted PRI more than $1 million dollars for the restoration and reorganization of its ever-growing specimen collection, one of the ten largest in the country. In September, PRI learned it was about to receive an additional $497,100, again to be applied to organizing and computerizing its extensive mollusk collection.

It was not automatic that PRI would receive the funds however, said Dr. Greg Dietl, Director of Collections at the Institution. After applying for the grant in July 2008, PRI was initially denied.

“At the time they rejected us because they didn’t have the funds to cover us,” Dietl said. “You can imagine NSF likes to spread the wealth around. But sort of out of the blue, in July of this past summer, we found out that we were being reconsidered for funding for the project.”

One of the main reasons why PRI was reconsidered is because the reorganization project is creating jobs; assistants are needed to curate collections and vendors have been given work, for the actual construction of new storage units, Dietl said. This was one of NSF’s main focuses when considering applications since the foundation was given extra funding from the government as part of the economic stimulus package this year.

PRI’s ability to now organize over 1.5 million specimens is not only a big deal inside the Institution itself, but serves a significant purpose in the larger scientific community as well. Along with large cabinet organizers known as “compactors,” which anyone who is conducting research can look through, the collections are also listed on PRI’s website, in a searchable, database format. This allows anyone interested anywhere, to sift through the collection and easily find what he or she is looking for, without having to travel to Ithaca.

Since people from all over the world have the potential to access PRI’s collection, the Institution Director, Dr. Warren Allmon, finds it extremely important to keep every collection he receives, whether it be from other universities, from other researchers, or even from a person with no paleontological background who happens to be holding onto an amateur collection.

“This is a library,” Allmon said, “I have to imagine what people might want someday.”

Even non-research grade material that PRI receives, or collections that lack locality or dating information, is put to use, something that serves to satisfy the “outreach” stipulation in the grant from NSF.

“In this particular case, we’re going to bringing some local teachers in to help us throughout the process,” Dietl said. “As we’re fixing these drawers and opening up [old] boxes, material that isn’t research grade we will let them keep, such that they can build their own collections for classrooms.”

Allmon also finds other ways to connect with the community. The open to the public part of PRI is known as the Museum of the Earth. The natural history museum is the largest of its kind between New York City and Buffalo, and serves to educate about the Northeast region of the United States in particular. The museum holds several different events throughout the year for all age groups. Allmon’s next event, a book lecture and discussion, will be held Nov. 20 at the museum in honor of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species.

Paleontological Research Institution spreads the word on bivalve research

By: Zachary Tomanelli

ITHACA, N.Y. — Paula Mikkelsen and the team at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, N.Y. are charged with an interesting task: making people appreciate clams and mussels somewhere other than a table at a summer barbecue.

The institution, which runs Ithaca’s Museum of the Earth, is one of three centers nationwide engaged in BivATol — a five-year program funded by a $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The goal of the project is to develop a “Bivalve Tree of Life” or rather an evolutionary tree for clams, mussels and their relatives.

Mikkelsen’s team is working on the project alongside groups from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. But Mikkelsen said the Ithaca team’s primary responsibility is to make the project’s findings engaging to the public.

“Most of my efforts so far have been working with our webmaster to develop the BivAToL Web site and working with the director of exhibits at [the institution] to design a traveling exhibit called ‘Evolution on the Half Shell’ that will open at [the institution] in October 2010,” Mikkelsen said.

Sarah Chicone, the director of exhibits at the institution, said making such a complex scientific issue understandable and exciting has been a challenge.

“It’s difficult content,” Chicone said. “It deals with a lot of scientific research and complicated terms. But we are very confident that the approach we have taken to the content and exhibit will spark interest and curiosity.”

Brian Gollands, the webmaster for the project, said new technology has helped make projects like BivATol more accessible.

“In the old days, you had scientific journals and if you belonged to a society you would get that journal,” Gollands said. “It was very much sequestered away from the interested public. But more and more there is a new publishing model, where journals are going online.”

He said this has allowed more people to read primary scientific literature. He also added that the Web has changed the way the public interacts with scientific research.

“Its not just about having the ability to layer the information on a Web site as a series of pages for people to read,” he said. “With interactive technologies, such as Flash or Java, you can have interactive models, where you can illustrate concepts that have come out of recent research.”

And research is something the BivATol project has plenty of.

The project, which is now in its third year, is progressing as the team has hoped, Mikkelsen said. Until now, most of the researchers’ time has been spent collecting various species of bivalves so they can begin investigating their evolutionary similarities. Mikkelsen said the research teams have just recently concluded the collection-of-species phase of the project, which required trips to Florida, the British Isles and Australia, and will now begin generating data in preparation for an upcoming conference in Phuket, Thailand.

Meanwhile the challenge for Gollands, Chicone and the staff at the institution remains the same: making people understand the importance of the project.

“The outreach component is very important to National Science Foundation funded projects,” Gollands said. “NSF wants the public to understand that there is a good reason for spending tax money on this research.”

And even though bivalve evolution may seem like an obscure research area, it is crucial to understanding larger issues, Mikkelsen said. Bivalves, she explained, have an important role in biology, ecology and even the economy.

“Bivalves are extremely important, economically, as human food, the source of pearls and mother-of-pearl,” she said.

Learning more about bivalves will also help control “pest organisms,” such as zebra mussels, she added.

Gollands said that because bivalves act as water filters, they are also very important for learning about our water supply.

“We can look at the chemicals that have been held in clams that are dredged out of the river, for instance, and see that mercury levels are increasing,” he said. “So if we know two [bivalve] species are closely related, and one survives in a polluted river and another one doesn’t — well that gives us a clue that we should be looking at the differences between these two species.”

He also said that with projects such as BivATol it is hard to predict what will be uncovered before the project starts — something that can make it hard to sell to the public. However, just having the opportunity to explore such areas, he said, can yield amazing results.

Even so, Gollands appreciates the work it will take to get people excited about bivalves.

“It is a very big challenge for us— trying to communicate to people that clams are a source of wonder in addition to being good with melted butter.”

Video:

Sarah Chicone, director of exhibits, discusses the construction of the Evolution on the Half-Shell exhibit.

Paleontological Research Institution and the Museum of the Earth

http://whatkatiebthinks.blogspot.com/2009/11/paleontological-research-institution.html

Ithaca College works toward classroom fire code compliance

Ithaca College addresses classroom capacities almost eight years after state fire codes change.

By Katie Bataille

ITHACA — The office of Environmental Health and Safety at Ithaca College recently reassessed the fire caps of all of its classrooms after it was brought to the attention of the school by the local codes official that they were not up to date.

According to Tim Ryan, the assistant director at the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management, the college maintained that they were grandfathered under older codes.

The maximum number of people allowed in a classroom at one time is dependent on the amount of space each person needs to have, and by the size of the room by law. Under previous state laws, each occupant required 15 square feet of space, however, when the state switched to international fire code standards in 2001, that number jumped to 20 square feet.

“It’s in the code and it just had to be addressed,” said Ryan, who specializes in Environmental Health and Safety. “It’s an on-going issue right now. We have re-measured all the classrooms, and we’ve recalculated. We have a spreadsheet for every building and every classroom.”

The college began to address the issue toward the end of last year, Ryan said. Capacity changes, coupled with the arrival of the larger-than-usual class, made reassigning classrooms harder than in the past, a challenge that fell into the hands of Brian Scholten, the college’s registrar.

Approximately 2050 new students enrolled at Ithaca for the 2009-2010 academic school year, 300 more than the college anticipated. The code changes reduced the number of occupants allowed in some rooms by as much as 25 percent. To make up for these discrepancies, Scholten and his staff focused on lowering the number of students allowed to register for each class where it was appropriate to do so, on creating new sections, and on finding faculty to teach those classes, he said.

“In a regular semester, a large part of that work is done far in advance of students registering for classes,” Scholten said, “but we just had to do much more of that for this incoming class.”

Fire and Building Safety Coordinator Ron Clark, who has been at Ithaca College for 23 years, said the change in 2001 was prompted by the New York state codes themselves.

“It was all related to the fact that trying to understand the code was very difficult,” Clark said. “Three different people could have three different interpretations of it.”

“[The change] was also to make New York more competitive,” said Ryan Quigley, a fire protection specialist for the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control. “An architect can easily design a building for any other state that uses the international code but in New York there [were] more strict things.”

Clark and Quigley spend several weeks together every year inspecting every room and building on the campus to ensure that no codes are being broken. Quigley records their findings for the state and issues notices of code violations until each problem is resolved. This year’s rounds began on Wednesday.

To watch a video of a routine codes inspection, and to view a list of tasks to be completed by the college each year, click here.
To watch a photo slide show of a routine house inspection by Novarr-Mackesey Property Management, click here.

Gorge safety group takes stock of another season

By: Zachary Tomanelli

ITHACA, N.Y. — As winter approaches, a mostly accident-free gorge season has members of the local gorge safety task force breathing a collective sigh of relief.
In 2009, two gorge-related deaths were reported, and both of those were believed to be suicides — not the result of an accident. And while it is impossible to say whether this is a direct result of the 3-year-old task force’s work, its members say they hope they are making a difference.
“I feel like we are making a positive impact, and I am hoping that it will carry on,” said Ithaca City Clerk Julie Holcomb, who has been involved with the task force since its inception.
The task force was formed in 2006 because of the high number of area gorge accidents over the years. It comprises city officials, local emergency responders and Cornell University police and administrators. According to city of Ithaca Deputy Fire Chief Tom Parsons, the group meets several times a year to improve the safety of the trails, educate the community on dangers posed by the gorges and develop gorge rescue techniques.
Holcomb said the task force has been using new mapping technology to achieve the last goal. She said they have developed huge maps that show the accessibility of certain areas of the gorges.
“So now, at a glance, we can quickly take a look at the best approach to swift rescue efforts,” Holcomb said.
And while improving rescue techniques is important, she said, the group’s ultimate goal is to prevent accidents from ever happening. To accomplish this, she said, the task force has been doing community outreach and working with the media – something that has presented its own challenges.
“Lots of times, if you look in the newspapers — in the welcome back student sections — you see pictures of the gorges, and you see people swimming in them. And that’s not good,” Holcomb said. “So we have talked to them about being responsible in the pictures they include and things like that.”
A major part of the outreach, Holcomb said, has been directed at the local colleges — Cornell in particular.
“When the freshmen came in, during the summer, there were orientation leaders that were taking kids cliff jumping and swimming in the gorges and all of that. And we said this is a culture that we need to change,” Holcomb said.
She said the Cornell student body has since joined them in implementing gorge safety programs on campus. Still, cliff jumping remains a popular hobby for some.
Connor Huyler, a junior at Cornell, said jumping into the gorges is a must-do activity for students.
“Have you ever free fallen from 40 feet up? It’s fun; it gets the adrenaline pumping,” Huyler said.
Huyler also said he thinks the danger of the gorges is overstated.
And while Holcomb admitted that the task force cannot change everyone’s mind or prevent every gorge accident, she said she believes they are making strides even though they may not be immediately visible. She did add, however, that in relation to past years this gorge season has been thankfully quiet.
But just because the winter is on its way, and the gorge trails are closing, it does not mean the group’s work is finished. According to Parsons, winter brings along a whole new set of challenges.
Parsons said the icy conditions, and high water levels make the gorges a more dangerous place in the winter. These hazards, he said, also make rescues more difficult and treacherous. Despite this, people ignore the closures, he said, to catch a glimpse of the gorges in the wintertime.
“Anyone who’s been fascinated with the beauty of the ice coating of the
gorges in the winter, might not necessarily think about those dangers,” Parsons said.
And those dangers, he said, can be worse in the springtime because trailgoers believe the snow and ice has cleared even though it remains, and they are unaware of the potential for falling rocks.
According to Kathie Notarfonzo, the Finger Lakes regional safety director for the New York state parks department, a massive “scaling” operation must take place before the gorges are reopened in the spring.
“We have a crew that goes in and actually repels over the cliff walls,” she said. “They knock down all the loose rocks. So we don’t want the public in until we do that in the spring.”
Still, Notarfonzo said, people always try to sneak onto closed gorge trails early – something that tends to end badly, Parsons said.
Parsons also mentioned the financial impact of gorge rescues. According to him, each rescue costs between $4,000 and $5,000 because the city must pay off-duty firefighters to cover the responsibilities of the firefighters on rescue.
But more important than the financial cost of these accidents, Holcomb said, is the human cost.
“I’m devastated every time we have a gorge accident. And it was something that could have been prevented – someone who was swimming in an area, who didn’t know it was that dangerous,” she said. “I hope we will see a day where we are not mourning with another family over a tragic loss.”

To view an audio slideshow about the infamous Paul Schreurs gorge accident of 1986 click here.

Ithaca High School Volleyball begins its comeback after ten years

By Briana Padilla

Ithaca High School’s girls varsity volleyball team continued their season of firsts Tuesday night when they beat Binghamton High School in a 3-1 victory. The win, their third of the season, made the ‘09-’10 season the team’s best since 1999. A fact which made last night’s victory about more than what was on the scoreboard.

Up to this point, the volleyball program at Ithaca High School has been, at best, unstable. Having lost their competitive reputation, and having five different coaches in as many years gave the girls on the team a unique set of hurdles to overcome.

“I feel really good [about the season] because every year we’ve had a different coach,” said senior Audrey Cullen. “It’s been really hard for the seniors because every since [we started playing] we haven’t had one coach or one person who runs the whole program and [Coach] Reynolds is trying to change that.”

The team’s current coach, Bryan Reynolds, who was the junior varsity coach last year, is the first consistent coach many of the juniors on varsity have had and another in a long line of different coaches for the girls who have been on varsity for two, three or five years.

Prior to Reynolds, the girls varsity coach was Amanda Hubbard, a health education graduate student at Ithaca College.

Hubbard, who has six years of coaching experience, was asked by the school to coach after Darin Strong, varsity coach and physical education teacher at the time, was charged with felony offenses of attempting to disseminate sexually explicit materials to minors, attempted unlawful contact with a minor with the purpose of committing a sexual offense, criminal use of a communication facility and indecent exposure, a misdemeanor in the first degree.

As of April 2008, the misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure was dropped and Strong was awaiting arraignment in Blair County Court.

The suddenness of Strong’s removal from the girls’ lives as their coach as well as the questions and the interest his arrest garnered was difficult for the team to deal with said junior Jackie Cheri.

“It was so weird,” she said. “You would never expect him to [do that]. He was so nice, he was such a nice coach and his wife was also the JV coach when he was the varsity coach. We loved her. We loved them. It was like a family.”

In the wake of Strong’s absence, it fell to Hubbard and Reynolds as varsity and JV coaches to refocus the girls on the game said Hubbard.

“That‘s how our season started last year,” she said. “We were going into our first tournament, and boom, [Darin‘s arrest] is in the papers everywhere and the girls were bringing those papers to the tournament.”

In the years since Strong was coach, Hubbard said the team has worked not only to overcome the negative spotlight put on them because of their former coach, but also to establish themselves as a team worthy of respect in the sport. The girls motivated themselves by establishing what they wanted to stand for as a team said Hubbard.

“It was a struggle for identity,” she said. “It was mostly [about gaining] self-respect, respect for the team and the sport.”

Since Hubbard left the team, Reynolds and the team have continued to work towards establishing the Ithaca High School volleyball program. By all accounts, they’re succeeding.

“They’re a lot more aggressive this year,” Reynolds said. “They’re playing with a lot more enthusiasm and passion. With me being the first coach who has been with them for more than a year, I think they’re familiar with me, with what I want to see out of them. They’re playing longer games, they’re winning more games within a match. [Overall] they’ve been more successful than they have been in past years.”

The girls are excited about their success especially because of what they have overcome, said junior Emily Sullivan. “In comparison to other years, we’re just playing better,” she said. “I think it’s the consistent coach and [we‘re] going to get better as the years go on. Our skills have improved so much and we’re really excited about that.”

IHS tennis trying to stay perfect

By Zachary Tomanelli

ITHACA, N.Y. -Lina Chang, captain of the Ithaca High School girls’ tennis team
admits she
has been spoiled. The senior hasn’t seen her team lose since her sophomore
year.
Chang said she hopes things stay that way when the team takes the court
in next week’s Southern Tier Athletic Conference championship. The Little Red
(12-0) will try to cap off its second consecutive undefeated season. According
to Chang, being perfect is something the members of the team take great pride
in.
“It has been very exciting,” Chang said. “It’s always fun, like at our
homecoming pep rally, when they announced the girls’ tennis team as being
undefeated, we all got riled up.”
Arthur Falkson, who has coached the Little Red since 2007, said the team
unexpectedly lost three starters to boarding school at the start of the year, and
a top doubles player moved out of the area. Because of this, Falkson said he
was unsure of what to expect as the season began. Needless to say, Falkson has
been impressed by his team’s performance.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised, especially by how well our doubles players
have performed,” Falkson said. “And our third singles player, Rebecca Gilovich
has only lost one match all season.”
But a much of the team’s success, he said, can be attributed to the
excellent play of Lucy and Mane Mehrabyan. The sisters are the top two singles
players on the team, and neither of them have lost a set all season. And
according to Chang, the sisters’ strong play takes pressure off of the rest of
team.
“Mane and Lucy, they always win all of their matches,” Chang said. “So we
know that if we don’t do as well, we definitely have people who will carry the
team.
Despite this, Falkson said he has tried to foster a sense of camraderie on
the team. And Chang said this year’s team has a special bond.
“I think our personalities all mesh together really well,” Chang said
Mikayla Bobrow, Chang’s doubles partner, said the team has used activities
outside of practice to build unity in what is traditionally thought of as an
individual sport.
“We did a car wash to raise money, and we are planning on doing a team
sleepover, to get everyone together,” Bobrow said.
The Little Red’s opponent in the STAC championship is still unknown.
Falkson said they are awaiting the winner of the other semifinal between
Sesquehanna Valley and Horseheads. The game date has also yet to be decided,
but Falkson said he expects it will not happen until next week.
Despite the importance of the match and their long layoff, Bobrow said the team
isn’t changing anything about its preparation.
“The entire season we have been trying to play our best, and we will keep
doing that.”
Thus far, that strategy has worked – to perfection.