Gabe Lehman
lehmanga@grinnell.edu
Grinnell women’s tennis simply overmatched competition last weekend. The women started the day by embarrassing Simpson 9–0 in the morning and then romped Central College 7–2 to establish supremacy over these Central Iowa rivals.
While the entire team played stupendously, it was their doubles performance that was truly remarkable. None of the doubles teams lost a match against either opponent, going a perfect 6–0 on the day.
“We can count on winning our doubles,” said Anushka Joshi ’18.
The wins rounded out a solid regular season for the team, but with four first-year starters, the sky truly is the limit for this team in the coming years. First-year Judith Fan ’19, already the No. 1 player, sees a bright future ahead.
“There is a lot of potential for us to improve and maybe win the Conference in the next couple of years,” Fan said.
Head coach Andy Hamilton ’85 pointed specifically to the play of another first-year, Amelia Cogan ’19, who won both of her singles matches and both of her doubles matches this past weekend.
“She is one of the top doubles players in the league so she helps anchor our number one doubles. And then her singles play throughout the spring has been probably the best of anybody on our team,” Hamilton said.
“(Cogan) played some beast doubles,” Joshi said simply.
The road for the Pioneers now gets much tougher and they hope that the momentum from their weekend of wins can carry over to the NCAA Midwest Conference Qualifying Tournament. If they can win the tournament they will move on to Regionals. While the task is daunting, Hamilton believes his team is as ready as it ever has been.
“This team has been maybe the most cohesive team that I have ever had in women’s tennis and so it would just be really exciting if we were able to get to the NCAAs [Regionals] and I think we have a good chance for it,” Hamilton said.
Moreover, Hamilton believes the confidence his team has will surely translate to the Conference tournament.
“In processing with the women about the weekend it is clear that they have a sense or a feeling of momentum,” Hamilton said.
Whenever their season comes to and end, it will be the final match of coach Hamilton’s career as the women’s head coach. Hamilton will become Grinnell’s Athletic Director next season and is forced to leave some of his coaching responsibilities behind.
“It is sad that he is leaving because he did recruit us. And we did get to know him and he is a pretty cool guy,” Fan said.
“He’s a motivator. He knows how to make us work really hard and make us win,” Joshi said.
