Albany, NY –The Sage College’s department of athletics gathered to recognize and honor the outstanding performances of the 2014-2015 year with the naming of the athletic award winners for the 15 varsity athletic teams. In addition to awarding the Gator Award, for the Most Outstanding Player, the department also named the 2014-2015 Female and Male Athletes of the Year as well as the Dean Sharon Robinson Senior Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year, which is given to the senior student-athlete with the highest overall grade point average.
Women’s tennis team co-captain, senior Kirsten Ackerman (Guilderland, NY/Guilderland) was named the 2014 Sage Women’s Tennis Team Gator of the Year. The two-time Skyline Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Year and three-time Skyline All-Star performer, Ackerman went 14-2 in singles play this past fall with the women’s tennis team and finished as a 2014 ITA Northeast Singles Semifinalist. Over the course of the season, she went 79-16 in her three seasons at Sage and produced a record of 44-5 in singles play and a 35-11 mark in doubles action.
Head women’s and men’s tennis coach Tom Fashouer said of Ackerman, “Kirsten finishes her fantastic tennis career at Sage as a three-time first team all-conference player and the most decorated player in program history. “ He continues, “Her three-year record at sage is 79-16. In addition, Kirsten posted a 4-2 record for the men's team this spring, playing at #1 singles. She is an amazing player. We have some very big shoes to fill with her graduation.”
The most decorated women’s tennis player in program history, Ackerman also played this spring as a member of the men’s tennis team at Sage. She went 4-2 at No. 1 singles this spring as a woman on the men’s tennis team, also wraps her outstanding collegiate career of tennis at Sage.
Ackerman helped the women’s team to a repeat appearance in the Skyline Conference Tournament in the fall of 2014, while helping to create several new high-water marks as a member of the men’s team in 2015. Sage recorded the program’s first Skyline Conference victory, while racking up two team wins, another Sage first. She was one of two players that recorded four singles wins to set a new standard for the most singles victories in a season.
She served as co-captain of the Sage women’s tennis team for the past two years. She was awarded Women's Tennis Player of the Year for the Skyline Kirsten Ackerman Conference two years in a row. During her last semester at Sage, Kirsten also played on the men's tennis team at the number one singles position with a winning record. She was recognized as a Scholar Athlete and presented with the Gator Award the past two years. During her junior year she was the first Sage player to make it to the quarterfinals of the ITA Northeast Regional Tournament (Division III). In her senior year, she advanced to the semifinals, another Sage first.
Last summer she was selected as one of ten students from across the United States to participate in the Research Experience for Undergraduates program funded by the National Science Foundation. It was an eight week program located in Stillwater, Oklahoma at Oklahoma State University.
Kirsten says her college experience has allowed her to determine what is important to her. “Over the last four years I have seen myself become more open to trying new things and seizing every opportunity that came my way. I have become more independent and well-rounded through all this exposure to new activities.”
Kirsten has accepted a position through Sage's Dietetic Internship program where she will fulfill requirements to sit for the Registered Dietitian licensing exam. She will also pursue her master's degree.
An accomplished student-athlete, she was also honored with a repeat selection to the Sage Athletic Honor Society and was named in 2014 as an ITA Scholar-Athlete. A repeat Sage scholar-athlete honoree, she is a candidate for the 2014-2015 Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-District Team and the 2015 ITA Scholar-Athlete Team.