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U S TA E A S T E R N L O N G I S L A N D R E G I O N

36TH ANNUAL AWARDS JOURNAL Regional Director’s Letter elcome to the 36th Annual USTA W Long Island Regional Awards! It’s been a great year for the Long Island tennis community. Tonight we gather to celebrate and recognize Long Island’s junior, adult, high school, league captains, teams, and contributors who will receive awards based on their play, accomplishments and dedication to the game we all love. Participation in our sport continues to grow, as we continue to aspire to USTA National’s goal of 35 by 35 (35 million players by the year 2035). To assist in making this a reality, the USTA LI Regional Council is proud to host an evening that gives us an opportunity to recognize you, and say thank you! It’s also a yearly reminder of how diverse and special the Long Island tennis community truly is. The mission of the USTA Long Island Regional Council is to reach out to the entire Long Island community to help bring and foster tennis to people of all ages and skill levels. We do this by providing support, education, and training. Our ability to award LI Regional Grants allows for new and innovative programing to come to fruition. Without the dedication of our regional council members (all volunteers), who give of their time throughout the year, we would not be able to conduct various activities that allow us to fulfill our mission. Reflecting on some of our past activities during the past year, the USTA LI Regional Council was privileged to again be a sponsor of the Long Island Special Olympics. We had the opportunity to volunteer our time providing giveaways, educational materials, and running a Red Ball demonstration court by our booth, while also helping out at the tennis portion of the event. We continued our support of Robbie’s Run and their mission of providing CPR training and AEDs. We provided a day of introductory tennis to hundreds of children in Nassau and Suffolk County at our Family Park Day event and our yearly Summer Kids’ Days. We also partnered with the Adelphi tennis teams to provide an afternoon of Red-Ball for Adelphi students, staff, and alumni. Many of these events would not have been successful without our many partnerships. Thank you to our partner Long Island Tennis Magazine for their ongoing support and coverage of these events, and to Adelphi University, LuHi Camp, Sportime Hempstead Lake and Island Quest Camp for hosting these events. We proudly continue our support of high school 1

Long Island Tennis Magazine • September/October 2024 • LITennisMag.com

tennis. Since the 2022-23 season, each Nassau and Suffolk public high school girls and boys team has been provided special plaques that allow coaches to recognize one player on each of their respective teams for outstanding sportsmanship. I was pleased to have the honor to present plaques to the winning and runnerup players from the Nassau and Suffolk County teams who competed in the Large and Small Schools Long Island Championships. We also provided sweatshirts to all the girls and boys representing Nassau and Suffolk at the New York State Individual Championships. Our high school tennis teams and their players once again had exceptional seasons. The doubles team of Christian Bravo & Ben Wiese (Garden City H.S.) won the NY State doubles title. In team competition, the Syosset girls won the Large School NY State Team Championship while the Bayport-Blue Point girls’ team won the Small School NY State Team Tournaments. In the boys’ season, both Syosset and Bayport-Blue Point were the NY State runner-up. Lastly – I would like to acknowledge the induction of three Long Islanders into this year’s Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame. Congratulations to Joel Ross and Robbie Wagner for their induction, and to our dear good friend Danny Burgess (in Memoriam), longtime instructor, community tennis advocate, and former USTA LI Region President. On behalf of the Long Island Regional Council, I would like to express my thanks to USTA Eastern and Amber Marino – USTA Eastern Executive Director & CEO for their support of the Long Island Region. Without that, this award’s evening and the many activities we provide wouldn’t be possible. Please make sure to visit our web site and our Play Tennis Long Island Facebook page frequently, and if you don’t already, please subscribe to our quarterly newsletter, “On the Ball: News from LI.” We ask you to pay it forward by sharing, participating in, and supporting the sport we all love by working with us to inform and highlight these and other programs and activities. I look forward to continuing the work we are doing and to reaching out and creating new pathways for those who have never had the opportunity to play and experience the best and healthiest sport for a lifetime. Michael Pavlides Long Island Regional Director (volunteer)

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36TH ANNUAL AWARDS JOURNAL

ant to see photos from tonight’s awards or from past years? Need more information on our fabulous honorees W and past awardees? Inspired to nominate someone for an award for next year? Visit www.longisland.usta.com for all you need to know about our Long Island Regional Awards Dinners from past to

36th Annual USTA Long Island Region Awardees

present!

36th Annual USTA Long Island Region Awardees (2026)

Prestigious Awards Hy Zausner Lifetime Achievement Award Walter Staritsky

Tennis Professional of the Year (Junior) Simon Childs Long Island High School Tennis Team of the Year Syosset High School

Vitas Gerulaitis “For the Love of Tennis” Award Bill Levine Rose Buck Scalamandre Tennis Family of the Year The Green Family

2025-26 High School Champions Nassau County Boy’s Singles Champion: Wheatley H.S. – Saje Vijay Menon NYS & Nassau County Boy’s Doubles Champions Garden City H.S. – Christian Bravo & Ben Wiese

Arthur Ashe Multicultural Award Vanessa Miller

Excellence Awards

Birdie Tarulli League Captain Sportsmanship Award Jacki Mazzarone

Adult Volunteer of the Year Jacki Binder

Blane Magee League Captain Sportsmanship Award John Ramo

Charles Karp Memorial Award for Overcoming Adversity Anabel Van Cott, Jayne Alterman, & Andrew Katz

Anuj Agarwal Junior Sportsmanship Award Alexander Lerman

Daniel Burgess, Sr. Community Service Award Olivia Lichota

Jennifer Sherry Junior Sportsmanship Award Emily Glass

Suffolk County Boy’s Singles Champion Ross School – Ignacio Pena Lopez Suffolk County Boy’s Doubles Champions Shoreham Wading River H.S. – Ray Hidaka & Kai Hidaka Nassau County Girls Singles Champion Syosset H.S. – Stephanie Marcheret

Junior Volunteer of the Year Jake Klein

Madeline Zausner Junior Tournament Director Award Donald Jackson

Nassau County Girls Doubles Champions Paul D. Schreiber H.S. – Evie Loewy & Brianna Lewis

Press Service Award Tony Bellissimo (Long Island Herald)

Good Samaritan Award Yuuki Donnelly

Suffolk County Girls Singles Champion Bayport-Blue Point H.S. – Lily Castka

Tennis Club of the Year Sportime Quogue

10 and Under Tennis Award Ofir Solomon

Outdoor Tennis Site of the Year Smithtown East High School

Junior Team Tennis Award Robert Hayden

Private Club of the Year Southward Ho Country Club

Innovative Tennis Program Love Serving Autism - Long Island Chapter

Tennis Professional of the Year (Adult) Thiago Natale Dualiby

Special Service Award Kitty Anderson-Galvez

Suffolk County Girls Doubles Champions Ross School – Lillie Weiss & Lola Dangin

Nassau County Coach of the Year Cold Spring Harbor H.S. – Melissa McLees Suffolk County Coach of the Year Harborfields H.S. – Justin Stybel

National Rankings (as of 8/5/26) Boys/Girls Boys 12 singles: #1 Yifan Nie, #2 Shuo Li Boys 14 singles: #1 Aidan Maddux, #2 Yifan Nie Boys 16 singles: #1 Alexander Lerman, #2 Ben Wiese Boys 18 singles: #1 Jack Kennedy, #2 Giovanni Rezk Girls 12 singles: #1 Aya Iwata, #2 Juliette Prince Girls 14 singles: #1 Gabrielle Alexa Villegas, #2 Chloe Wang Girls 16 singles: #1 Emily Glass, #2 Blake Chang Girls 18 singles: #1 Paige Wygodzki, #2 Stephanie Marcheret

Men Open: #1 Connor Plunkett 30+ Singles: #1 Russell Johns 35+ Singles: #1 Russell Johns 40+ Singles: #1 Don Lewis 45+ Singles: #1 Don Lewis 50+ Singles: #1 Robert Frydman 55+ Singles: #1 Gerry Bohner 60+ Singles: #1 Jeffrey Snow 65+ Singles: #1 Gerry Bohner 70+ Singles: #1 Steven Brill 75+ Singles: #1 Marshall Hubsher

Women Open: #1 Christine Schottanes 30+ Singles: #1 Ivy Jiang 35+ Singles: #1 Morgan Milleisen 55+ Singles: #1 Ellen Markowitz 60+ Singles: #1 Ellen Markowitz 65+ Singles: #1 Lisa Jett 70+ Singles: #1 Lisa Jett

Family Father/Son All Ages: Koichi Nakamura & Junji Nakamura Father/Son 60+: Adam Rosen & Benjamin Rosen

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36th Annual USTA Long Island Region Awardees

THANK YOU e are grateful to all our supporters for helping to make the 36th Annual USTA Long Island Region Awards program a W success. Special thanks to Long Island Tennis Magazine for publishing tonight’s awards program. Thank you to our fabulous dinner committee headed by the incomparable event planner Randi Wilkins and featuring the hard work of our

USTA League Team Awards Eastern Sectional Champions Spring 2025-Winter 2026 40 & Over Women 3.0 Donna Healy (Christopher Morley) 55 & Over Men 6.0 Adam Moramarco (Christopher Morley) 55 & Over Women 7.0 Jacqueline Mazzarone (Eastern Athletic) 55 & Over Men 8.0 Matthew Crowley & Sarabjit Lamba (Sportime Syosset) 55 & Over Men 9.0 Lionel Goldberg & Robert Chesney (Robbie Wagner) 40 & Over Mixed Doubles 6.0 David Ng (Christopher Morley) 40 & Over Mixed Doubles 8.0 Terry Kossegi & Patricia Siler (Carefree)

Long Island Regional Council. 40 & Over Mixed Doubles 9.0 Roslyn Chua-Mcalonie & Justin Laible (Deer Park) 65 & Over Women 6.0 Mary Alice Ruppert (Sportime Bethpage) 65 & Over Women 8.0 Lydia Eitel (Sportime Syosset) 18 & Over 6.0 Mixed Doubles David Ng and Sophia Yang (Christopher Morley) 55 & Over 6.0 Mixed Doubles Donna Healy & Angelo de Bourg (Sportime Lynbrook)

2026 Eastern Team Tennis Sectional Champions 16U L6 Champions Long Island Health and Racquet

The USTA Long Island Council at the annual Council Party

Long Island Regional Council Executive Committee Mike Pavlides, Regional Director Jonathan Klee, Past Regional Director Sunny Fishkind Tito Perez Jason Wass Randi Wilkins

Committee Members Scott Axler Greg Balk Shannon Blue Kevin Boston-Hill Hilary Bressler Matthew Cheong Henry Chiu

Adelphi students, staff and alumni took part in a fun-filled tennis afternoon with USTA Long Island and the Adelphi tennis teams

Jackie Clark Thiago Natale Dualiby Dunja Froman Herb Harris Karen Jones Bon Koo Mitchell Maiman

Jason Pasion Fabiana Rezak Clark D. Ruiz II Denise Schmidt David Sickmen Michelle Stoerback Jacki Binder, Newsletter Editor

Neil Thakur, Manager, Schools Tennis and Long Island & Metro Region CTC Milly Keighery, USTA Eastern Long Island Leagues Coordinator USTA Long Island council members and volunteers at the Suffolk County Kids Day at Island Quest this summer

The USTA Long Island was once again proud to work alongside the Special Olympics and support these wonderful athletes

www.LongIsland.USTA.com Facebook: Play Tennis Long Island

Instagram: usta_eastern ustaonlongisland@gmail.com

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CONGRATULATIONS

to All Award Winners from The USTA Eastern Long Island Region’s 36th Annual Awards Ceremony

Congratulations to Olivia Lichota ’28 on receiving the Daniel Burgess Sr. Community Service v A Aw ward ffo or her work with the Glen Cove Boys and Girls Club. At Friends Academy y,, Quaker values guide every aspect of life. Service is a na atural expression of our values and a central part of the student s experience. friendsacademy.org (516) 676-0393

Congratulations to Jayne Alterman! We are constantly amazed by your vigor and ability to remain positive, you teach us all by example. Your journey is a testament to your strength and resilience, and a reminder to all… that you are capable of achieving anything! Love, Doug

Congratulations Evie Loewy! It’s been amazing to watch your tennis journey unfold, and winning the Nassau County Doubles title was special! Proud of your accomplishments both on and off the court!

U S TA E A S T E R N L O N G I S L A N D R E G I O N

36TH ANNUAL AWARDS JOURNAL

CONGRATULATIONS

to All Award Winners from The USTA Eastern Long Island Region’s 36th Annual Awards Ceremony

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Long Island Tennis Magazine • September/October 2024 • LITennisMag.com

LITennisMag.com • September/October 2024 • Long Island Tennis Magazine

U S TA E A S T E R N L O N G I S L A N D R E G I O N

36TH ANNUAL AWARDS JOURNAL CONGRATULATIONS to All Award Winners from The USTA Eastern Long Island Region’s 36th Annual Awards Ceremony

To The Long Island Chapter of Love Serving Autism!

Congratulations to Lola & Lillie on an extraordinary 2026 season. • 3rd Place — NYSPHSAA Championships • 2x All-State • All-Division - All-County • 24–0 Undefeated Season Two athletes who continue to raise the bar—on the court and off. Your dedication, resilience, and commitment have made this season truly special. So proud of you both. The best is yet to come.

Congratulations on this amazing recognition, and keep up the amazing work! Looking forward to seeing what’s in store for 2027 and beyond!