Krizso and Pagano are tennis champs
Noemi Krizso and Mia Pagano are Cornwall’s newest sport celebrities. On Friday afternoon, they’re smiling at me on the grandstand next to the tennis courts. Are they welcoming a stranger, looking forward to an interview, or am I seeing the glow from the previous day’s victories?
On Thursday, the girls won the Section 9 doubles championship in tennis. They claimed the title a week after they finished first in the OCIAA tournament.
The girls entered the postseason without much fanfare. During team competition, they had both been singles players. Cornwall had finished the year with a 5-5 record. When the seedings were announced for the OCIAA tournament, the Krizso-Pagano team was far down the ladder. The girls were seeded seventh.
But the Cornwall duo had a reason to be optimistic.
They had played in a doubles tournament at Sportsplex last winter and finished second. They didn’t practice together this fall, but they were eager to team up again.
“Doubles is so much fun,” Mia told me. “We kept exchanging high-fives in the beginning when there was no pressure.” The idea may seem radical. Sports are competitive and we forget that they’re supposed to be fun.
“We were positive the whole time,” the duo told me.
They won the OCIAA tournament without losing a set. They continued the string in the first two rounds of Section 9 play, but ran into a problem in the semifinals.
The Cornwall girls were facing Ally Shapiro and Jade Garary from Newburgh, whom they had easily defeated a week before. But this time the Goldback players put up an impassioned fight. They won the second set 7-5 and took a 2-0 lead in the third and final set.
Mia and Noemi rallied to win 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 and then captured the title later in the day. As a result, their season isn’t over. They were due to play in the state championships in Schenectady on Oct. 28.
In the meantime, the girls are practicing with a team from Washingtonville that is coached by a Cornwall alumnus. Matt Anastasi and his partner (Sam Lawyer) won the sections doubles title in 2013.
“We may carpool to Schenectady with them,” Mia and Noemi told me. The camaraderie is not unusual.
“Most of the tennis people are really close,” the Cornwall girls said. “All of the players are really friendly.” That’s something you probably wouldn’t hear in another sport.
What to expect in the state tournament is hard to know. Section 9 players have had a hard time being successful. And the Cornwall players have another year ahead of them. Noemi is a sophomore and Mia a junior.
In the off season, Mia will be teaching tennis and Noemi will be on the golf course. She played with the boys’ team last spring. And this year, Cornwall will introduce a new team for girls.
