Colorado College dropped two of three matches at the 2008 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Championships in Greencastle, Ind., but still managed to come away with a sixth-place finish in the tournament.
The fifth-seeded Tigers had a tough draw to open the tournament, taking on No. 4 Rhodes College in Friday's opening round. Sophomore Britt Swenson and freshman Jordan Evans combined for an 8-2 victory at No. 2 doubles and sophomore Sally Bryant gave CC a second point by coming from behind for a 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-6) victory at No. 5 singles.
The Lynx had to work much harder than they did in their first meeting with the Tigers on Feb. 22, when Rhodes cruised to a 7-0 victory. Swenson put up a strong battle before falling 7-5, 6-4 at No. 4 singles, while junior Kelsey Smith hung tough in a 6-2, 6-4 loss at No. 3. Smith and senior Leah Zipperstein came out on the short end of an 8-5 decision at No. 1 doubles.
“I felt like we gave Rhodes a little bit of a scare early on,” said first-year head coach Perry Wright. “It was very apparent that we had improved since the last time we faced Rhodes in February.”
Colorado College bounced back the next morning to dominate Hendrix College, 8-1. The Tigers were in complete control from the start, sweeping all three doubles matches. Evans and Swenson extended their winning streak to four while improving their team record to 15-8.
Zipperstein, Smith, Swenson, Bryant and freshman Sarah Delaney each won two matches in the dominating effort.
“We almost swept Hendrix this time, which is a drastic improvement from our 6-3 decision in February,” Wright said. “On the whole, we were pretty dominant from the start, and by applying our method of constant steady pressure we came up with a big win to send us to fight Southwestern for the fifth-place spot.”
Colorado College needed a victory over Southwestern University to finish fifth, but the Pirates were able to get a measure of revenge for a loss to the Tigers one week earlier by coming from behind for a 5-4 victory.
CC won two of the three doubles matches to grab an early lead for the ninth time in the last 11 matches, with Smith and Zipperstein combining for an 8-5 triumph at No. 1 singles and Swenson and Evans teaming up for an 8-4 win at No. 2. The Tigers had a chance to pull off the sweep, but Bryant and Delaney dropped an 8-6 decision that gave the Pirates a much-needed point.
Smith dominated her No. 3 singles match by a 6-0, 6-2 count, Swenson came from behind to post a 4-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-3) win at No. 4 singles. But CC was never able to get the elusive fifth point.
Bryant and Delaney came the closest. Each dropped a pair of hard-fought games, falling 6-3, 6-4 at No. 5 singles and 6-4, 6-4 at No. 6 singles, respectively.
“Unfortunately, we needed three of the six singles matches in order to win the team match, and we could not get it done,” Wright said. “We were close at 5 and 6 singles, but couldn't make the push into the win column. Credit should go to Southwestern, which seemed to maybe want it a little more than we did.”
Despite losing two of three matches on the final weekend, the youthful Tigers finished the season with a 14-10 overall record.
That mark included a 7-0 record against Division II opponents, with six of those victories coming against rivals from the state of Colorado.
Swenson, Smith and Evans were honorable mention selections on the 2008 all-SCAC Women's Tennis Team.
The Tigers were 9-3 after returning from spring break, which is one reason there is so much excitement looking ahead to the 2009 season.
Another reason for the unabashed optimism is that CC will return six of its top seven players.
Swenson and Evans combined for a team-best 16-7 record in doubles and waged a two-person battle for the top singles record. Swenson finished with a 19-3 individual mark, with two of her losses coming against Division II opponents. Swenson led the Tigers with a 14-match winning streak, 10 of which came after moving up from No. 5 to No. 4 singles.
Evens finished the season with a 15-7 individual record, playing 22 of 23 matches at No. 2 singles in her first collegiate season. Prior to the SCAC championships, she had won 13 of 14 singles matches.
Smith was third on the team with a 12-12 record and closed out the season with a 12-2 mark after settling in at No. 3 singles. She also had a 12-12 record at No. 1 doubles with Zipperstein, as the duo won eight of their last 11 matches.
Bryant closed out the season with an 11-12 singles record and a 10-13 mark in doubles with Delaney.
Delaney had a 4-12 mark in singles, sharing time with sophomore Anh Lai, who had a 2-4 individual record.
As the team looks forward to the 2009 campaign, the loss to Southwestern may be just the motivation it needs to work hard for en even better finish.
“Honestly, that was a hard loss to stomach after such a tremendous season,” Wright said. “I think this loss does not reflect what all we've accomplished during the season. I'm very proud of the Tigers.”
