The State University of New York at New Paltz women's tennis team has waited nearly 14 months to not only re-claim its conference title but prove itself in the NCAA Tournament after scoring back-to-back automatic bids in 2018 and 2019.

The Hawks return all but one player from their last SUNYAC Championship and added depth with standout freshmen Tatiana Barnett and Loretta Donovan, along with junior Isabela De La Rocha from La Paz, Bolivia. The team might be the deepest ever for longtime head coach Rob Bruley who hopes he and his team can claim the program's seventh SUNYAC Championship and re-enter the NCAA Tournament in a shortened 2021 campaign.
 

"Offseason we did a lot of training," said SUNY New Paltz junior Trinity Chow. "We did a lot of conditioning. We went to the gym as a team and went to yoga as a team, so we'd be ready for this [season]."

Juniors Chow and Laura Koob highlight the Hawks at the top, as the two have played first doubles and are featured at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the singles line up, respectively, since stepping foot into the program in 2018. The duo is two-time SUNYAC Doubles Team of the Year Champions, while Koob also has two First-Team All-SUNYAC titles under her belt along with a Rookie of the Year honors. Chow, meanwhile, has established herself as one of the best ever in the conference, being named the Peter J. Cahill SUNYAC MVP each of her two seasons. Chow and Koob have combined for just six losses in singles play and four in doubles overall, and within the SUNYAC have lost just once ever in singles or doubles action over the last two years.  
Another former SUNYAC Rookie of the Year Jenna Grandville will provide leadership for SUNY New Paltz as one of three seniors on the team. She was featured at fourth singles last season and played second doubles with 2019 grad Victoria Zezula. Onalee Batcheller, the Rookie of the Year, last season for the Hawks, returns alongside doubles teammate Alexandra Dratch.

SUNY New Paltz's regular season will consist of only SUNYAC competition so it will be vital for the team to capture a third-straight championship in order to continue onto the NCAA Tournament. Its biggest competition, as it has been in years past, will be SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Geneseo. The Hawks won't see the Knights, however, unless they face them in the SUNYAC Tournament. In accordance with the COVID-19 health and safety plan, travel is limited among teams so the conference was split in an East and West division. SUNY New Paltz in turn will face Oneonta, Cortland and Plattsburgh twice in a home-and-home series. The top two teams in the division will then participate in the conference tournament.

"The short season is definitely going to be weird because we're only going to be playing half of the conference instead of all of the teams at once," said junior Alex Chimenti. "We're only playing three teams so if we advance to the conference final, we'll be playing a team we haven't played yet in the regular season, which will be different but it's not something that we're not used to. We're always ready to play a match. We just have to stay ready and stay intense and just show up prepared."

The Hawks open up their season at home Wednesday, hosting the Red Dragons of Cortland at noon on the North Turf Field. In accordance with SUNYAC Policy, no spectators are allowed at SUNY New Paltz home events. However, one court will be live streamed, along with score updates provided during the match. To view those links, click here.

"We're really excited to get started. Our season is pretty short this year. We only have six regular season matches. We're playing teams in our side of the conference twice and then hopefully we're going to SUNYAC's at Cortland outside this year, which is a little bit different than the fall," Chimenti added. "Usually we play indoors at Binghamton but we're only meeting there this year in the finals. We're all super excited. Practicing really hard for a long time and we're excited it's finally here."

To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on Twitter at @nphawks, Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.