Photos credit: Kinnelon High School Yearbook

By Steve Sears

The 2017 Kinnelon High School Colts girl’s tennis team had some unfinished business to attend to.

The girl’s team had never won a state title, losing in the 1976 final, and in 2016 in the Group I final round to New Providence, who they were ready to face again a year later in the semifinal.

In 2017, it all came together, as the Colts defeated a foe they had lost to just one month earlier, Mountain Lakes, by the score of 4 – 1, at Mercer County Park in West Windsor. With the win, they claimed their first ever NJSIAA Group I state title.

Head Coach Jon Cataldi that year was in his 10th season, and he was assisted by Mark Landzert. “That was an amazing team,” he states. “We had so much talent. We had Brittany Lau, who was one of the top players in the state at the time. She’s playing for Brown right now, and doing amazing things there. Agatha Malinowski as a freshman started as my first singles player, and then when Brittany came in became my second singles player. We made a change at doubles late in the season.”

Cataldi also saw emerging talent in Olivia Bryja, who came in late in the season. “She got really, really strong throughout that season, and got that doubles spot that she deserved, and I believe it was second doubles. I remember the entire state finals match against Mountain Lakes, just coaching second doubles. I didn’t step away from that court the entire time until they clinched the win, and then I found out that Britney has won easily, and that Christie Lau won a three-set tiebreaker. When I found that out, which was so exciting, I went over to Agatha’s court and waited for the match to finally officially end. It was just incredible.”

The Colts had their revenge in the semifinal earlier in the day, defeating New Providence, 3 – 2. Caroline Balick was doubles player as a sophomore in 2017, and a singles player as a junior and senior. “It felt very rewarding,” she says of the New Providence win. “After a year of waiting to play New Providence again, it was very gratifying to not only end up beating them, but to also win the whole Group tournament.”

According to Balick, the Colts were a bit nervous heading into the Mountain Lakes matchup, but were confident as well. “Our first and second singles players were shoe-ins since they were both nationally ranked and had easily beaten their opponents from Mountain Lakes earlier in the season. For our third singles player and second doubles players, they had close matches with their Mountain Lakes opponents in the past, so we knew it could go our way this time. And for me and my partner at first doubles, while we knew we would have to fight to win, we were very confident in our ability to win. My partner and I had a great dynamic and were very consistent on the court. Overall, as a team we felt very good heading into the match against Mountain Lakes.”

“They were one of the top two best teams I coached,” Cataldi says of his 2017 club, which had an overall record of 19 – 5. “The year before, we had a tremendous team as well. I remember beating Leonia at that point in the sectional final, and that was a huge win because we lost to them in the sectional final the year before. It was such a tremendous memory in my own life, one of my best moments of my life as a coach, and I know that the girls felt the exact same way. And what chemistry that team had! That was such a tremendous group of people, not just players. It’ll be etched in our hearts forever.”

“It felt amazing to represent our school at the state level,” Balick says while reflecting back. “Kinnelon is a small public school — we don’t recruit athletes to play for us and we don’t have a large pool of athletes to choose from when creating a team. But luckily we had some of the best players in the state, and our main goal was really to just have fun. While of course we wanted to win, I think having this mentality took some pressure off and let us focus even better, which allowed us to end up taking home the title for our town.”