PBU’s women’s tennis began late this season.  Our team consisted of seven young women.  Only one, a senior, had previous intercollegiate tennis experience.  Three of our numbers were freshmen and one of them had never played tennis before while none of our numbers had played competitively in the preceding 18 months or more. The two sophomores had never played tennis either but wanted to learn the game, and our one junior was new to the game having been taught and inspired by her roommate that had retired from the game due to injuries.

The group hit the ground running.  Dr. Beach was greatly supportive of the women’s desire to compete and sent the word out to our NEAC fellows and friends:  “Have team, will travel.” And travel we did.  We had one home game this season. 

Long rallies, tiebreakers, and three set matches characterized the season’s play.

Regrettably it was at the home game that our number one player, Ashley Wegman, developed shin splints and had to retire after wining the first set from a formidable player from Poly Tech.  It was a great disappointment for both players that the match could not be settled on court.  Ashley never quite healed from her injury, but continued to inspire her teammates by attending daily practice and taking the field at each scheduled match.

Soibhon Lockett and Chantel Loures, both freshmen, played in the singles' number two and number three positions.  The singles statistics of these two, together with Lockett’s and her doubles partner, Casey Cawley’s stats, was a key to PBU’s berth to the NEAC playoffs where Loures finished third in her flight and received an honorable mention certificate for her play.

Yoked with the statistics of the three freshmen and captain Wegman was the steady play of Melissa Chaisson in the fourth position.  Melissa is the team’s second captain who methodically played her matches.  She applied the skills she learned while playing with her roommate and refined with help from her coach while always figuring how she would win on her own terms.   After each of her matches she came off the court, win or loss, expressing her deep understanding of what was needed to win.

Kelsey Knutson and Cassie Hartwell alternately held down our number six position.  While they both are new to the game, neither of them appeared to be beginners when they took the field. Long rallies, tiebreakers, and three set matches characterized their matches as it was for all our players this season.  Kelsey is an academic scholar award recipient and Cassie is the team’s Eagle award recipient.

Conditioning and fundamental biomechanical skill development proved to be the area needing most to be addressed this season but the great joy brought to the team’s new coach was the relaxed Christian character of the seven women who came to play.