After ending the historic season that featured its first back-to-back Ivy League titles and a tough loss to a quality Virginia team in the NCAA tournament, the women’s tennis team entered the offseason on a high note. The team has experienced some controversy lately, though, as news broke last week that the NCAA will penalize the University for a “major violation” of NCAA rules involving the women’s team.
An alumnus reported himself to the University for contributing roughly $33,000 for the tuition, room and board of a women’s tennis player during the 2007–08 academic year and the fall of 2008. The donated money was intended to cover the academic fees not met by the University’s financial aid package that the parents of the undisclosed student were unwilling to pay.
The NCAA’s penalty includes public reprimand and censure for the University, as well as a ruling that the University must vacate all individual records for the matches in which the student won while she was receiving unreported money. Finally, the NCAA decided that the student must donate the full amount that she received from the alumnus to charity.
Despite this troubled beginning to the season, the women’s team looks to build off its undefeated conference run last season and recapture the Ivy League title. After graduating only one senior, the team returns a strong core highlighted by senior Taylor Marable and junior Hilary Bartlett. The pair enters the season ranked No. 8 in doubles, while Bartlett is ranked No. 49 in singles. Bartlett is also a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.
The team also welcomes the addition of three freshmen: Caitlin Bartlett, Katherine Flanigan and Brett Ellen Keeler. They figure to be an integral part of the team’s effort to defend its Ivy League crown.
“I think they’ll contribute a lot,” sophomore Monica Chow said. “We don’t really know the lineup yet, but they were all really good in juniors. I think we’re going to switch up the doubles team, so I think they’re going to be contributing in doubles and singles.”
The fall season will serve as an opportunity for the team to get used to playing together again and play against quality competition as it gears up for league play in the spring.
“In the fall it’s more individual tournaments, so we’re just trying to work on our games and get back into it,” Chow said. “The rankings just came out, and Hilary [Bartlett] is ranked [No. 49], and Hilary and Taylor [Marable] are ranked No. 8, so we just want to keep improving. They have All-Americans coming up, and we have a tournament this weekend, so we’re just going to try and win as many matches as we can and become more comfortable.”
The fall season kicks off this weekend as a portion of the team will head to the Duke Fab Four Event, while the rest of the women will compete at the Columbia Invitational.
The offseason for the men’s team was less eventful. After a relatively successful Ivy League campaign last season, which saw the team finish with a winning record of 4-3, the men graduated two senior captains Ilya Trubov and Charlie Brosens. Brosens was the No. 1 in singles, so a primary focus in the beginning of the season will be on who will step up and take his place. Additionally, the team will feature various doubles pairings the next few weeks as the team plays in various tournaments to work out a set lineup for the spring season.
The Tigers should get some help from a strong freshman class. The men welcome freshmen Augie Bloom, Dan Davies and Dan Richardson.
“They’re all ready to contribute right away,” senior captain Alex Faust said. “They’re all really good players that had great success in summer tournaments, and we can see from practice that they’re going to transition well into the college atmosphere and the college game. We’re excited to see what they’re going to do, and we know we’re going to see some good things from them.”
The men will use the fall season as a way to train for the spring.
“Our focus right now is just working hard and putting in the work that we need to get ready for the spring,” Faust said. “Going in we’ll have some tournaments in the fall to get us ready and for some of the new guys to get some match play against some of the teams we’ll face in the spring. So our focus right now is just working hard, and the time to put in the work is the fall, and hopefully we can see some good results in the spring because of it.”
The men look to build off last year as they look toward conference play in the spring.
“I think we can take away confidence from last year,” Faust said. “We were right in the Ivy League until the last match. We had a good chance of winning that match, so we can take away confidence. We’ll be competitive this year, so if we put in hard work in the fall we’ll be right there this year.”
The men will begin their season at home this weekend by competing in the Princeton Invitational at Lenz Tennis Center.
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