By ALICE LIU ’12
Sports Editor
The Wellesley College tennis team advanced to the second round of the 2009 NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis Championships Sat., May 9 after defeating Endicott College 5-0 Friday. The team went into the NCAA Regional Semifinals with an18-5 record and lost to Middlebury 5-0. They ended the season with an 18-6 record overall.
The NCAA Tennis Championships is composed of 47 selected teams. According to a NCAA news release on May 4, the teams play a single elimination tournament with the first, second and third rounds played at regional sites. The tournament lasted from May 8-10. The final championship will be held May 19-21 and is hosted by Oglethorpe University and Gwinnett Sports Commission at Collins Hill Athletic Club in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
Wellesley swept a 5-0 victory over Endicott by dominating in doubles matches. Junior Co-Captain Meghan Stubblebine was the key performer as she was inserted into the doubles lineup five minutes before the start after Grace Cheng ’12 pulled out with an injury. Stubblebine stepped in and played with Marie Watanabe ’12 to secure a strong 8-0 victory at number three doubles. Stubblebine then pulled out her singles match at the number six spot. Jacqueline Shen ’11 was also was a key performer finishing both her number one doubles and number three singles. Mohona Siddique ’10 and Jacqueline Shen ’11 wrapped up the doubles matches with an 8-3 victory. Between Stubblebine and Shen, they combined for the four of five wins needed. Co-captain Jen Schwarzkopf ’09 and Katelyn Ching ’09 contributed strongly as well with an 8-1 victory in second doubles.
Head Tennis Coach Brian Kuscher said, “The performance against Endicott on Friday was tremendous. After a long day Thursday night of traveling and an early start, our players really came out and showed Endicott what Wellesley was about.”
After a doubles sweep, the team only needed to secure two wins in single matches to move on to regional semifinals. Shen and Stubblebine secured the win with victories at third singles and sixth doubles respectively.
On Saturday however, Wellesley lost 5-0 to Middlebury, who only needed two singles matches for the victory after winning 3-0 in doubles matches.
“Middlebury seemed a little fresher mentally than we were on Saturday. That, with the combination of shot-making that day were the two keys. Our players gave me more effort than in any match the entire year; they wanted to win more than I have ever seen, but the shot-making was not with us. Those days happen, and as I mentioned to them at the end of the match, all I could ask from them was to give me everything they had effort-wise, and they did. I was proud of the entire team,” Kuscher said.
Blue tennis concluded their season as a team this Saturday after the semi-finals. For an individual player however, the journey may still continue to nationals. Watanabe has been selected as the second alternate to the National Individual championships to be held in Lawrenceville starting May 22. She finished the year ranked tenth in the region and had three wins this year over nationally-ranked players.
“We have to wait and see if anyone drops out in the next week or so for her to get in. So, we are waiting patiently for the call,” Kuscher said.
As the season concludes, the team reflects on the year as an overall success. The team had three main objectives this season: win NEWMAC, win 7 Sisters, and get past regionals. “We were able to in thrilling fashion pull out the NEWMAC and Seven sister titles. While not being able to win the regionals was a tough goal to not achieve, attaining two of the three goals is a great accomplishment. Nothing can take away our five straight
NEWMAC and Seven Sisters titles. These are the aspects of the season we will remember and carry with us into next season,” Kuscher reflected.
With an impressive history of five straight NEWMAC and Seven Sisters titles, the team has even more to look forward to the coming season. According to Kuscher, the team is looking forward to a new dynamic and enthusiasm from incoming first-year Julia Xu.
Kuscher is optimistic about the coming season’s success, “I know everyone was thrilled she had committed here and I feel with her on this roster, and the players we have returning, we will look forward to defend a sixth straight NEWMAC and 7 Sisters title.”
A challenge the team faces next year is a more competitive team-wise schedule compared to this year’s. Outside of the Wellesley tennis’s conference schedule, the Blue will have all nationally-ranked teams which include Pomona, and Redlands during spring break. Additionally, rivals Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Bowdoin and Tufts are all on the schedule. While the schedule may be more competitive, the team looks forward to playing new competitors and is excited about challenges and successes that lay ahead.
“If you throw this in with our Wellesley Invite where we are looking to bring teams like MIT and Skidmore in, the schedule itself will be awesome,” Kuscher said.
This is coach Kuscher’s first year coaching tennis at Wellesley College. Kuscher’s final comments were, “I want to thank my team and assistant Coach Ann Jacobs for a great first year here at Wellesley. The support they all gave me was high-class.”