Before we completely put behind us last year's successful season and look ahead to 2010-11, I wanted to quickly recognize the individual accomplishments of some of our student-athletes on and off the court.
First off, our team's end-of-season awards went to the following two:
Most Improved Award
Carolyn Ball class of 2012
Although Carolyn joined our team after the end of the Fall season, she made an immediate impact to our line-up, starting at the bottom and working herself up to the middle/top in no time. And although she didn't have much experience playing doubles coming in, she rapidly improved that part of her game as well contributing in doubles when needed also. Carolyn was second only to Ariel Lewis in terms of winning percentage in singles this past year playing anywhere from #2 to #6. We look forward to having her never-give-up attitude back (for the whole year this time!) and seeing how much more she can improve!
John Erikson Doubles Specialist Award
Finley Gates class of 2012
Finley has been a huge asset to our doubles line-up for two years now. Along with partner Ariel Lewis, they have moved up from the #2 spot during their freshman year to very solidly hold down the always tough #1 position. Finley has incredibly fast hands up at the net and very good understanding of doubles strategy and positioning making her a very "tough out" for many a teams! Congrats to Finley for the great accomplishment!
Voted Captains for the 2010-11 season
Ariel Lewis '12 and Rebecca Brown '12
Intercollegiate Tennis Association recognition
Individual rankings
For the second straight year, #1 player and captain Ariel Lewis finished the year ranked in the region and nationally in singles. Ariel was 9th in the very deep Central Region and 31st in the nation finishing the year with an amazing 19-4 record in dual matches all at #1! Ariel was 21-7 overall for the year (dual matches & tournaments combined). What's even more amazing is that even with only 2 years under her belt, she's solidly in Oberlin's Top 10 in various statistical categories such as Career Wins (7th), Most Wins in a Season (1st), and many more! (Note: these statistics are likely to be a little inaccurate due to incomplete records from certain years)
Academic Awards
For the 4th straight year, our team has been recognized by the ITA as an All-Academic Team with a GPA of 3.2+ for the Fall and Spring combined. Congratulations to all 9 team members for their dedication in the classroom in their respective fields of study. Individually, we only had one Academic All-American this year in Brie White-Dzuro '12. Off the record though I will mention that we had several members of our team who missed the award literally by only a few tenths of a point... In order to be recognized for the individual honor, one must earn a varsity letter and have a GPA of 3.5 or above for the academic year. Brie easily made that mark and hardly took a break before coming back to campus to work with professor Catherine Oertel on a project titled: Hydrothermal Synthesis of Pb-Based Compounds.
The 2009-10 Oberlin Women's Tennis Team
