sports 2187350 From Tennis Champion to Grad School STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER Awaken the Beauty Within... W est Maple Plastic Surgery Specializing in Cosmetic Surgery & Aesthetic & Reconstructive Breast Surgery DANIEL SHERBERT, M.D. F.A.C.S. Certifi ed by The American Board of Surgery, The American Board of Plastic Surgery & Fellowship Trained in Aesthetic & Reconstructive Breast Surgery (248) 865-6400 5807 W. Maple t Suite 177 t West Bloomfi eld 2053870 000000 Feature your business with our new way to advertise, on our website. Three sizes to choose from with affordable pricing options. www.thejewishnews.com 14 June 29 • 2017 jn T ennis star Alex D’Ascenzo has quickly transitioned into the next phase of her life. Two weeks after graduating from Cornell University, D’Ascenzo began her three-year pursuit of a doctorate in physical therapy at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions in Boston. “I’ve benefited from the physical therapy I’ve received during my tennis career,” she said. “Now I want to help others.” D’Ascenzo was eager to get started in grad school. “I didn’t get much time off after I graduated; but if waited, I wouldn’t have been able to start at Massachusetts General Hospital until June 2018,” she said. D’Ascenzo came to Cornell as a coveted high school girls tennis recruit. The Frankel Jewish Academy grad was ranked the No. 5 recruit in Michigan by the Tennis Recruiting Network. Four years later, her women’s ten- nis career at Cornell couldn’t have ended any better. The Big Red finished 15-8 this spring, tying the program record for wins in a season. Cornell’s 5-2 Ivy League record was its best since 1996 and resulted in the team’s first Ivy League championship. Cornell needed help on the final day of the Ivy League season to win the title, and it got it. The Big Red defeated Brown 4-1 to give itself a chance. About 90 min- utes later, Penn finished a surprising 4-3 win over Harvard. Had Harvard beaten Penn, Harvard would have been the out- right Ivy League champion. Because it lost, Harvard fell into a three-way tie for the league championship with Cornell and Dartmouth. D’Ascenzo and her teammates closely followed the Harvard-Penn match during the start of a five-hour bus ride from Brown, located in Providence, R.I., back to the Cornell campus in Ithaca, N.Y. “We kept refreshing the Penn team’s Twitter account to find out Alex D’Ascenzo helped the Cornell University women’s tennis team win its first Ivy League championship. what was happening in the match,” D’Ascenzo said. The Ivy League champion has an automatic berth into the NCAA tour- nament. Dartmouth earned that berth through a complicated tie-breaking procedure. D’Ascenzo had an outstanding ten- nis career at Cornell, including being named the team’s Most Valuable Player and setting a program record for dual match singles victories (17) when she was a junior. She became only the fifth Cornell women’s tennis player to earn All-Ivy League honors in both singles and doubles. D’Ascenzo was 10-8 at No. 2 singles and 9-8 at No. 1 doubles this season. Her doubles partner was longtime friend Marika Cusick from Hinsdale, Ill. The two met through tennis. “Our tennis styles complemented each other, and we were comfortable playing together as people,” D’Ascenzo said. “We each knew when we could say something to each other, and when wasn’t a good time to say some- thing.” D’Ascenzo graduated from Cornell on May 28 with a bachelor’s degree in human biology health and society. “Going to Cornell was the best col- lege decision I could have made,” she said. “I really enjoyed being on the women’s tennis team. I’m a better person than when I got there, and the academics were very challenging. I feel I’m prepared for the work load of graduate school and I have good time- management skills.” D’Ascenzo, 22, has been playing high-level competitive tennis since she was 11. She isn’t certain how much tennis she’ll be able to play faced with the rigors of grad school. “We’ll see,” she said. “I’d love to keep playing.” D’Ascenzo is the daughter of Larry D’Ascenzo and Leslye Sklar D’Ascenzo. Her family live in West Bloomfield. • Send tips to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.