By:Arlene Hinkemeyer
The Valley Stream South High School tennis team completed its season with a 14-0 record and entered the conference playoffs as the No. 1 seed.
"This is the finest tennis squad to be assembled at South for quite some time now," said Coach Kristi Hinkelman. Team members are seniors Tom Mercurio, Joe Filippi, Brian Magh and Zack Turner; sophomores Jonathan Kaplan and Scott Laurentz; freshmen Scott Winokur, Jordan Epstein, Michael Ram and Andrew Lim and eighth- grader Sean Parlia.
After a first place finish in Conference IVB last year, South was placed into the more competitive IVA Conference for this season.
"We didn't know what to expect, but we were ready for the challenge," Magh, a co-captain, said of the team's move up to a higher conference.
"Tom and the other seniors are largely responsible for the resurrection of the boys tennis program at South," added Hinkelman. "The Falcons have made a complete turnaround in the past few years, going from a winless 0-14 record in 1997 to this year's unbeaten 14-0 record."
Co-captain Mercurio summed up his team's accomplishments by saying, "We entered the new conference as underdogs, but exited undefeated."
In addition to the conference championship, team members also earned many individual awards. All-Conference and All-Division honors went to singles players Kaplan, Winokur and Epstein. Doubles players Ram, Parlia, Filippi and Magh were awarded All-Division recognition. Mercurio and Winokur represented South at the County Doubles Tournament at Great Neck South High School.
"The team is very young and has a bright future ahead," Hinkelman said.
