Led by Head Coach Curtis McCalla, Saint Anthony’s Friars AA Girls Varsity Tennis team ended their regular season with a successful 4-1 record. They carried that success into the playoffs and brought home a League Championship with a win over the defending Champions Saint Francis. Continuing the success, Friars then faced Archbishop Molloy for the CHSAA State Championship and concluded their fall season as the number one NY State Catholic AA Tennis team.
The Friars season was very successful with wins over teams including Saint Francis Prep, Sacred Heart, and Our Lady of Mercy Academy. The Friars faced their number one rival Saint Francis Prep three times this year and started that series with a 4-3 loss. They would face them again the next day due to previous rain delays and flip the script winning 4-3. Finally, the two powerhouse teams would have to face off in the league championship where the Friars left it all on the court winning 5-2, with very impressive wins in the singles and doubles department for the Friars.
I spoke to team captain, senior Olivia Milkowski, about her time as a captain and she highlighted a few players who helped with the successful season. “I have had an amazing season as a captain and I’m proud to lead such a great team. We have had many accomplishments, such as Peyton Quinn, and Samantha Wiemann, who won the individual State Doubles Championship and Paige Wygodzki winning the individual League Singles title.”
The Friars entered the season with multiple goals including winning both the State Doubles Championships and the Individual Singles title. Their last and most important goal was to win their first team league championship since 2019. In 2019 they won 4-3 against the 3x defending Champions Saint Francis Prep, who they again faced three times that season with no success.
As they accomplished those goals, one by one, there was a possibility when they found themselves making it to the NY State Championship match on October 26th. Facing NY’s top city school Archbishop Molloy, Saint Anthony’s was not intimidated and would recapture the state title since 2019, with a clean 5-0 win.
The Friars end a good season with a great story. Head Coach Mccalla said, “this season we had one thing in mind winning and with the returning players paired with some new strong players I know we could do it. I told this team they needed to trust themselves, stay focused and aggressive. They wanted this. Ending the season playing at the National Tennis Center in Queens was amazing for all of us.”
Riley Schumacher is a Junior in his first year as a writer for Scoreboard. He is a member of several clubs at SA and will be our lead writer for boys lacrosse this spring.
