The College of Staten Island recently completed what was their final turn through the City University of New York Athletic Conference in 2019-20, and will be fully integrated into the East Coast Conference with an NCAA Division II schedule in 2020-21.  Leaving behind a tremendous wake as one of the CUNYAC's founding members, day-by-day we will be looking back at each of CSI's programs, notably the CUNYAC Championship teams spanning over 40 years in our spring CUNYAC retrospective entitled, "Remember the Legacy."  This historical look back will chronicle the amazing achievements of CSI athletics programs, complete with championships, milestones, and amazing performances.

Our next sport spotlighted will be Women's Tennis, a program with five CUNYAC Championships to their credit, the program started in line with CSI's entry into NCAA Division III, immediately making a splash, becoming one of the conference's dominant forces in the late 1990's and winning back-to-back CUNYAC titles as recently as 2013-14.

THE START
The College of Staten Island made their entry into NCAA Division III in fall of 1977, and so the women's tennis program made their debut as one of the school's founding sports.  They didn't tiptoe their way in, either.  Of their 12 matches that inaugural year, nine were against NCAA Division I and II schools.  CSI won four matches that first year, three against D1 programs, the second against their cross-town rivals at Wagner College.  Most noted for her over two decades of work with the CSI Softball team, Hall of Fame coach Elizabeth Zwingraf was at the reigns that inaugural year for tennis, as she was with other sports like Women's Volleyball, Women's Basketball, and Cheerleading.

THE FIRSTS...
First Match:  September 21, 1977 - CSI visited East Orange, N.J., to visit Upsala College, a former NCAA Division III program that shut their doors in 1995.  The Vikings prevailed, 4-1.
First Home Match:  September 30, 1977 vs. Barnard College, a women's-only subsidiary of Columbia University, CSI fell, 4-1.
First Win:  October 3, 1977 - CSI defeated NCAA Division I Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J., 5-2.
First Home Win:  October 8, 1977 - CSI defeated Rutgers-Newark, 3-2
First Coach: Elizabeth Zwingraf - she spent just one season with the team, posting a 4-8 overall record

THE LEAD UP
It took 11 years for CSI to land their first of five CUNYAC Championships, but in fairness, it was only the third year the CUNYAC supported a Championship, in 1987.  Prior to that, CSI had their ups and downs.  The Dolphins suffered through six-straight losing seasons beginning in 1979, and from the end of that season, until the beginning of 1982, CSI had dropped a whopping 30-straight matches.  The team was obviously showing some growing pains, but in 1986, their luck changed.

With a revamped recruiting effort and a dedicated call to an improved schedule that saw them almost triple their match totals overnight, CSI scored a program-best 10 wins in 1986 next to just seven losses, five of those to Division I & II programs.  The Dolphins officially put themselves on the CUNYAC map as well, placing second overall in the Postseason Tournament.  Although dismayed by falling short, they headed into 1987 with Championship on their radar, complete with the CUNYAC's Singles Champion, Andra Patti, in tow.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP - 1987
CSI made a statement early when they scored a 6-3 win over Hunter College in their season opener in 1987 and they were able to dominate the conference from there. After a perfect regular season run (CSI finished 7-3-1 overall), the Dolphins headed into the Tournament as the favorite.  From 1985-2003, the CUNYAC Postseason Tournament consisted of match Tournament play at each flight.  Players from all teams were seeded and points were attained for a team based on how many wins each individual player won at their flight.  By the end of the Tournament, CSI emerged the winner under Head Coach Brian Donlan.  At the time is was CSI's 11th CUNYAC Championship, but only the third women's team championship since the conference aligned itself.
1988-1997
After winning their first-ever title, CSI posted a respectable .500 season in 1988, but the team then suffered badly with roster numbers, playing only seven total matches in 1989 before CSI decided to take a pause and suspend the 1990 season.  It was an effort to boost numbers, and they did return in 1991.  The next year, they went one better by hiring Bruce Knittle as their coach.  A former pro, Knittle instantly lent credibility to the program, and in only his second year at the helm, in 1993, CSI was back, posting a 6-4 overall record, and finishing as the runner-up to Hunter for the title that year.  Over the next four years, CSI posted tremendous seasons, but were always the bridesmaids and never the brides.  Knittle's units won almost 30 more matches than they lost over that stretch, but finished runners-up three of the four years, placing third in 1997.  They were guided by dominating stars like Marina Koesnick and Michelle Korniewicz, flight champions during Tournament time who just could not raise that final trophy.

RETURN TO GLORY - 1998
It took 11 seasons for CSI to win their first title, and it took 11 more to land their second.  It was their first under Knittle, as CSI was able to ward off Hunter, who had won five-straight titles before Baruch did in 1997.  It put CSI on the map, capping their year with an 8-2 record, and made a star of Gabriella Nagy, one of the most recognizable Women's Tennis faces in CSI and CUNYAC Women's Tennis history.  Nagy, the team's ace and captain, was also named CUNYAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year at year's end, sporting a 3.91 GPA.  CSI scored 44 points in the CUNYAC Championship that year, at the time the most in conference history, and their margin of victory (11 points) was the third-highest in CUNYAC history to that point.

THE UNDERDOGS - 1999

The Dolphins were the favorite in 1998 after a Regular Season Championship, but with Nagy's graduation, that wasn't the case in 1999.  In fact, in a match that would determine the regular season crown, CSI was foiled by their old-rival Hunter College again, and the Hawks seem poised for a reclamation of the crown.  The Dolphins, however, had other plans.  Led by Liza Dungo, CSI edged Hunter by just two points come the tournament, the third-lowest win margin in history, good for their third Championship and the school's 10th back-to-back title spanning their sports offerings.

ALWAYS WITHIN REACH - 2000-2012
In the years that followed CSI's meteoric rise to a championship under Knittle, there were parts exhilaration and other parts frustration.  Hunter College was the nemesis, as CSI took second-place despite terrific regular season in both 2000 and 2001.  After years of dominating tennis, Knittle retired from the program in 2002, finishing officially with the men's program in 2003 with another CUNYAC Championship.  In 2014, Knittle was enshrined into the CSI Athletics Hall of Fame.

His legacy tells a great deal considering what followed.  The Dolphins went through four coaches, going 15-28 in the process between 2003-2005. From there, the team belonged to former Dolphin Paul Ricciardi, who slowly began to turn the tide again towards legitimacy.  With each passing recruiting class, CSI advanced, and after four-straight subpar years that yielded just just one playoff win (the CUNYAC adopted a team playoff format beginning in 2003), the Dolphins scored an 11-6 campaign.  The next year, CSI advanced to the CUNYAC Semifinals, and then in 2012, CSI had arrived, making it to the CUNYAC Championship and giving champion Hunter College all it could handle, albeit in a losing effort.  The Dolphins amassed 12 wins, a program-record.

BACK ON TOP - 2013-14
CSI went into the 2013 campaign with one mantra, "Championship or Bust," and they delivered.  CSI had perhaps one of the greatest back-to-back postseason runs ever realized in the process.  Powered by the likes of CUNYAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Ilona

Stoyko, junior Jean Baak, and dynamic sophomores Sabrina Bragerton-Nasert and Madiha Mulla, the Dolphins destroyed their program-record by winning 13 regular season games, going into the CUNYAC Tournament.  There, they met upstart Brooklyn College for the first time in the Championship, and with the score tied at 4-4, it was Baak's 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win in the No. 4 spot that earned the team the win, and after a 13-year hiatus, CSI were CUNYAC Champs once again.  This one was special, as it came packed with an automatic entry into the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament, the first in CSI Women's Tennis history.  

In an almost carbon copy scenario from their last back-to-back Championship season, CSI certainly had the talent but were the decided underdogs in 2014, having been dealt a one-sided, 7-2, loss at the hands of powerful Hunter during the regular season.  Still, CSI made it to the Championship against their rivals, and once there, the drama ensued.  Started at the National Tennis Center, the match ended over five hours later at nearby Queens College with rains dampening play as the teams traded shots back-and-forth.  Ultimately, CSI fell behind 4-3, and needed a near miracle to win...and delivered.  Down 5-1 in her first set, Mulla pulled out a 7-5 win and backed it up with another 7-6 win in set number two to tie the match at 4-4, leaving it all in the hands of sophomore Michelle Kushnir.  After a win in the first set, Kushnir lost her second set, 6-2, and was then down 5-1 in the third set, before forcing a 6-6 tie.  The tiebreaker would finish it, and there, Kushnir rocketed to a 7-1 win, getting mobbed by her teammates and first year Head Coach Arthur Velnik.  It remains one of the greatest highlights in CSI Athletics history.

THE END OF AN ERA - 2015-20

The Dolphins never could reclaim their tremendous lightning in a bottle magic from 2014.  Despite a tremendous regular season in 2015, CSI was upset in the Semifinal round of the CUNYAC Tournament, ultimately settling for a 14-5 finish.  From there, the team fell on a rocky patch, going just 18-33 over the last four seasons.  In March of 2020, CSI, like they did in 1990, discontinued the program.  It does not mean that the sport cannot earn a reprisal in the years to come.  As the Dolphins begin their trajectory into the ECC and NCAA Division II, they remain steadfast in maintaining the high standards they hold for their programs.  Tennis is no different.  While on pause, the department will continue to measure the viability of the sport in the hopes of a return in the future.

CSI played their final CUNYAC match against John Jay on October 11, 2019, a tough, 9-0, loss.  Their lone CUNYAC match scheduled for the spring, against York College, was canceled due to COVID-19.

REMEMBER THE LEGACY
First Season: 1977
All-Time Record: 256-271-4 (.482)
All-Time CUNYAC Record: 124-63 (.663)
CUNYAC Postseason Championships: 5 - 1987, 1998, 1999, 2013, 2014
NCAA Division III Postseason Tournament Appearances: 2 - 2013, 2014​
Hall of Famers: Elizabeth Zwingraf (2012), Bruce Knittle (2014)



Cover Photo from left to right: Gabriella Nagy, Lauren Pagano, Madiha Mulla