Homecoming '09

Things were happening last weekend at Oberlin with Homecoming festivities, 2 home matches for our team, Tennis Alumni Day, and several of our parents/family in town as well! And although our 2 matches didn't go our way, it was certainly nice to see 3 of our recent alums back (Jackie Golden '08, Kelly Sipp '09, and Sarah Teitelbaum '09; see picture below) and also of course our parents and siblings. The weather cooperated as well (on Saturday at least!) so that made things even more enjoyable.

Our Fall season has now come to a close. We played lots of matches (51 singles and 24 doubles to be exact!) against some pretty tough competition and our young team gained valuable experience. We all look forward to this break now, to recharge the batteries, heal some of our ailments, and continue improving our weaknesses. We will open the Spring season with a double-header at home on Saturday February 13th.

2nd Annual Oberlin Invitational

This past weekend marked the first official competition for the 09-10 season for our team. We hosted the 2nd OC Invite on campus and for our 3 freshmen (pictured below) as well as for sophomore Brie White-Dzuro it marked the first time they competed at the collegiate level and wore the Oberlin uniform. The format for the event was a bit non-traditional without the customary "draws" we're all used to. Instead, players were paired up according to ability and everyone was guaranteed 3 matches in singles and 3 in doubles. In short, the main point to the event was to get match experience in and not really to try and declare a winner.

Our team had some mixed results which was to be expected considering that our roster is 1/3 freshmen and 2/3 sophomores this year and we'd only had about 7-8 practices before the event... There were definitely some bright spots, most noticeably our ability to force 3rd sets after dropping the first (we had that happen several times over the weekend and I consider this a very positive sign for a team's mental toughness). Our doubles also looked good and although we're still trying to get used to new partners and formations, we're showing signs of great potential down the road.

Coming up, we'll all enjoy the weekend off and recharge the batteries for the following weekend when we travel to Greencastle, IN for the ITA Regional Tournament.

Below, our 3 freshmen Liz Saltzman, Preeya Shah, and Julie Christensen in action during their first collegiate event:

2nd Annual Co-Am a big success!

Our second annual Co-Am (College-Amateur) fundraiser tournament last Saturday was a big success. We had 12 participants from our local tennis community play this year that included alums, faculty, staff, and others. Our men's and women's teams did a great job hosting and everyone seemed to have a great time. The weather also cooperated this time (we had torrential downpours last year during the event) so that made things go even smoother.

No rest for some...

I'm really excited to be typing this first entry for the OC women's tennis blog! As mentioned in our last issue of our e-newsletter, this blog will actually be taking the place of the newsletter from here on out and will provide alums, parents, and prospective students with the "inside scoop" of our team...

And if you thought that there wouldn't be much to report in the middle of the summer...think again! Our assistant coach John Erikson along with his son, and former Oberlin stand-out, Carl Erikson went out to California recently for the National Hardcourt Father-Son Championships and placed second! Carl and John are no strangers to success at this level of course, having claimed 3 Father-Son National Championships throughout the years.

Carl and John had a fairly uneventful ride to the finals in this one, easily dispatching 3 teams without dropping a set along the way. In the finals however, they were narrowly defeated (7-5, 1-6, 6-4) by Gordon & Scott Davis. And to those of you that the name "Scott Davis" rings a bell...yes, that is the former ATP touring pro who won the 1991 Australian Open Doubles title and reached a career high ranking of #2 in the world in doubles and #11 in singles!! So, all in all, not a bad result for the Eriksons after all...

Below a couple of pictures of them from the event: