By Connor Peterson
It was a great week for Suffolk women’s tennis. The team brought home the Great Northeast Athletic Conference player of the year and rookie of the year honors. This is the second time in the program’s history that the school has received both awards in the same year. The girls also won first team all-conference honors for singles.
The recipients of the awards were sophomore Valentina Medina and junior Aidiana Sagyndykova.
Both ladies were certainly deserving of their respective awards after their impressive seasons. Sagyndykova won player of the year for the second straight year, finishing with a (12-1) record playing in the number one spot. Medina was awarded rookie of year, finishing an impressive undefeated season going (15-0) playing in the number two spot.
When asked about winning back-to-back player of the year awards, Sagyndykova said, “I did not expect that, it was really exciting for me. I was also glad that I could make my family proud. Studying abroad [from Kazakhstan] and also receiving awards is pretty overwhelming.”
Overwhelming as it may be, Sagyndykova has handled the spotlight extremely well.
When asked what it was like to play with someone as talented as Aidiana, teammate Medina boasted.
“[Sagyndykova] is one of the best players I have ever played with. It is unbelievable how well she plays; she is definitely the most important player on the team. That is why she’s number one. In addition to that, she is an amazing person, always caring about the team.”
This is a testament to Sagyndykova’s great nature as a person.
Medina has burst onto the scene her sophomore year while she has been playing for 12 years in her home country of Colombia.
“I liked it a lot because of the team we had. Everyone played an important role and it made our practices enjoyable and fun. It was an unbelievable experience, and I can’t wait for next season,” Medina said.
As a whole, the team finished (10-5), largely due to the successes of Sagyndykova and Medina. Although the team is losing three seniors this year, they look armed to come back next season improved and ready to face off against other teams in the league.
“It was so sad to see our three seniors leave us this year. We’ve grown so close to each other. I am, however, excited for our season next year. We have a lot of good players, and I also hope that we could win the GNAC conference next year,” Sagyndykova said.
With still another season to go for the powerhouse duo, it will be interesting to see what they have in store next.
