Samantha Perri named
Co-Rookie of the Week
Samantha Perri, a 2015 graduate of Floral Park Memorial High School and currently a freshman at Adelphi University, was named Co-Rookie of the Week for her performance after helping the women’s tennis team to a 3-0 record last week. She shared the honor with Paige Benoit of Assumption College.
“I played with confidence,” said the freshman. “I knew if I played well I’d win,” she added. The young star when 5-0 during the team’s three wins. She recorded two straight 6-0 victories over her opponent from AIC. She then won two close matches against Merrimack and Southern New Hampshire.
The team is off to a perfect 7-0 start and is looking to keep up their perfect start this week with matches against NE-10 foes Le Moyne, Assumption and Saint Anselm.
The Panthers have been a very successful team recently. In 2014, they compiled a record of 15-4—including a perfect 12-0 mark within the NE-10 conference. They defeated LIU Post to be crowned conference champs. Despite that success, they entered the season as the No. 2 ranked team in the conference behind Stonehill. The previous season, they went 13-6 but were edged by No. 1 ranked Merrimack in the NE-10 championship.
That type of success certainly helps their ability to lands top-flight local talent such as Perri. While at Floral Park, she was a six-year varsity and was named All-County and All-State—the highest of individual honors.
While she was mulling her college offers, Perri admitted Adelphi was the perfect fit.
“They offered everything I was looking for,” she said. “The school is a good size—not too big, and I could stay close to home,” she added. Additionally, being that the tennis community is a relatively small one, she was able to connect with some of her childhood teammates at Adelphi. She noted that it was unintentional to attend the same school but it was certainly a pleasant surprise.
Despite attaining such a great deal of success right off the bat at college, Perri is not content with her level of play.
“I need to work on being more consistent. I need to play out the point and focus on making the other girl miss,” she said.
To this point, it’s hard to argue with her results. She is the only player on the team with an unblemished record and as many as six wins, although two other players are 4-0.
Perri noted that she has been playing tennis since she was four years old and learned to love the game by watching her father play. He played collegiately at NJIT and has always participated in a recreational league since. He also teaches the game to amateurs.
During high school, Perri was also a talented softball player as well. She played five years but gave it up when it became apparent to her that she had a better opportunity of playing tennis at the next level.
She has honed her craft through hours of practice but also watching her favorite player, Novak Djokovic, play on television. The current No. 1 ranked men’s player in the world has won 55 titles (10th in the Open Era) and has accrued $86.8 million during his career. He is definitely a good player to model a game off.
Perri has certainly gotten off to a terrific start in her collegiate career. Adelphi will be relying on her to continue this level of play up in order to defend their crown as NE-10 champs in 2015.
