Trinity Women's Tennis Makes NCAA Tournament For Fourth Straight Season

 Trinity College

Bantams Visit Williams in Tourney
First Round Saturday

The 2002-03 Trinity College women’s tennis team, which posted a 6-4 dual match record this season and finished tied for fourth in the New England Division III Championships in the fall, has qualified for its fourth consecutive NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. The Bantams, ranked No. 22 in the nation and No. 6 in the Northeast region, will play at Williams in the NCAA First Round on Sat., May 3 at 9 a.m.

Trinity is seeded No. 7 in the Northeast region, as the Bantams have just six players on their active roster available for the Championships, while the Williams Ephs are seeded No. 2.  The winner of the Trinity/Williams match will face the winner of the other first round match at Williams on Saturday featuring the No. 3-seeded Tufts University Jumbos and the No. 4-seeded Middlebury College Panthers.  Top-seeded Amherst has a bye into the second round of the tourney, and on Sunday will host the winner of Saturday’s match between Bowdoin and Vassar, also at Amherst.

Trinity boats senior co-captains Courtney Sargeant (Attleboro, Mass.) and Karen Huebner (Burlington, Mass.), who have combined for a 15-13 singles record this season, along with sophomore Brittany Olwine (Atlanta, Ga.) and freshman Melissa White (Westwood, Mass.) among its top four.  Sargeant is Trinity’s all-time leader in singles victories with a 51-33 career mark. 

Seniors Victoria Miller (St. Louis, Mo.) and Aimee Hecht (Aspen, Colo.) were pressed into action in the final semester of the their collegiate careers, and have filled in admirably.  Miller has been particularly impressive with four wins in five matches this season.  The Bantams played the entire 2002-03 season without injured starting junior Sarah Krueger (Burlington, Vt.).  Sophomore No. 2 player Diana Dreyfus (Scarsdale, N.Y.) was lost to injury in the fall, while junior and two-time national qualifier Diana Goldman (Milton, Mass.) is spending the spring semester studying abroad.

Trinity, coached by Wendy Bartlett, has been to the NCAA Championship Tournament in each of the last four seasons, reaching the second round in 1999-00 and in 2001-02.  Williams has knocked the Bantams out of the tourney in each of the last three years.