Celebrated Slugger Caps College Career

it's late march in california, 2006, and libby copeland-halperin steps up to the plate. she's still a rookie, a freshman playing one of her first collegiate games for a team that will go 30-10. but on this day, copeland-halperin proves she belongs with her more experienced teammates. a poor pitch over the heart of the plate, a blur of aluminum as the bat flashes by and the ball takes off like a rocket, not landing until it clears the fence.

but wait! hold on just a moment!

copeland-halperin does not get to enjoy her home run trot. it turns out she batted out of order in the lineup, an innocent mistake, but one that gets her tossed from the game and her home run crossed out of the box score.

more than three years later, she has yet to see the humor in the situation.

"it's still not funny," she said in a huff.

maybe not, but copeland-halperin's team won anyway, and she managed to go yard again (officially this time) several days later. by the time her career at williams college ended, she was second in the school's record books, with 17 career homers. despite that initial misstep, the former horace mann slugger and upper west side native became a bona fide power hitter.

"i've always been more of a power hitter, even in high school," she recalled. "we didn't keep track of stats back then, but i definitely had some luck when it came to power. it's not something you want to take for granted. you don't want to ever say you can reliably hit a home run. but freshman year, i got more confidence every time i hit a home run or a double."

for whatever reason, new york city is not the incubator of softball talent that it is for basketball, tennis or even baseball ability. copeland-halperin has played softball for as long as she can remember, but she never fell into the routine of elite youth athletics. until after her junior year at horace mann, she didn't even play on a summer team. so when she headed to williams and joined a team poised for a run deep into the postseason, she felt a little unprepared.

"i came in liking softball, but it was never a full-year commitment," she said. "that was unlike most of my teammates."

but copeland-halperin, who is starting at mount sinai school of medicine this fall, still played in almost every game for the squad that year, and she's gotten only better ever since. this spring, she concluded her career by batting .300 with five home runs, 24 rbi and a .578 slugging percentage. she was also named to the new england small college athletic conference all-academic team.

more important, she never batted out of turn again.

among the few other locals playing softball in college, the majority still compete in new york city. baruch's gisell alix (brandeis) was named a city university of new york athletic conference second team all-star after starting 35 games as a freshman and hitting .354 with a .436 on-base percentage and 24 rbi. monroe's kary frias (art and design) had a standout first season by playing in 17 games, batting .426 and collecting nine rbi, 17 steals and a .557 on-base percentage. two more freshmen, monique sampson and lidymar riera (both cathedral graduates), played at lehman. sampson started 24 games while leading the team with a .333 batting average, a .508 slugging percentage and 14 rbi. she also stole eight bases. riera started three games and made five plate appearances, reaching base twice. christine vega (environmental studies) appeared in 14 games as a junior for buffalo state. finally, carly klingensmith (nightingale) started all 38 games at macalester, batting .154 and knocking in eight runs.

tennis-three ramaz graduates played at yeshiva this spring. gabrielle hess and moshe neiman complete their senior seasons, with the latter finishing 5-2 in singles and 2-2 in doubles. zack charles, meanwhile, was named to the skyline all-conference first team after going 3-7 in doubles and 6-4 at first singles as a freshman.

elsewhere in the city, yelnar nurseitov (laguardia), a junior at baruch, was 1-1 in singles and lost her only doubles match. new york university's lisa mijovic (nightingale) finished 5-7 in singles and 7-6 in doubles during her sophomore season.

there were also a bunch of locals playing upstate. bard's jesse bogner (browning) finished his career by going 4-2 in singles and 5-3 in doubles. rebecca london moved from birch wathen lenox to play at rochester institute of technology. and jeremy arthur (fieldston) and max willner (dwight) both competed for vassar. willner was named to the liberty league all-conference first team for the second straight season in singles after going 9-7. he also received an honorable mention in doubles for an 8-9 record.

two freshmen joined the team at oberlin: miles bogner (browning) and rebecca brown (dalton). brown was 3-1 in singles and lost two doubles matches. sara reed (riverdale), another freshman, went 10-8 in singles and 13-6 in doubles at claremont-mudd-scripps. but undoubtedly the best freshman season belonged to warren elgort; the trinity alumnus was 11-5 in singles and 14-3 in doubles at johns hopkins.

at pomona-pitzer, kathryn myers (spence) finished her career with a 12-3 singles record and lost one doubles match. titus levy (fieldston) was 8-11 in singles and 9-10 in doubles as a junior at macalester. and hunter holbrook's (trevor day) junior campaign for dickinson included a 10-3 mark at second singles and an 8-5 doubles record.

lacrosse-scott margolis (riverdale) played 13 games in attack for colby as a freshman and scored eight goals with six assists and 12 groundballs. yale's max rodman (trinity) appeared in five games as a junior, picked up two groundballs and went 9-for-15 in face-offs. two more trinity graduates played lacrosse: sanford nunes at trinity and ross lovern at skidmore. nancy planitzer (hewitt) wrapped up her career at pomona-pitzer. finally, two former horace mann players saw action on collegiate fields. sofia adler played in six games on defense for colgate, and katie guthrie appeared in two games at amherst, taking two shots and getting one groundball.