Monday Meandering....

I see that it is Monday again, and this means I should post a few words.....

Was quite the busy weekend for Kohawk Tennis. Three Men's matches in two cities, Coe's Scholarship Day, and Women's Challenge rounds Friday and Sunday.

Without a doubt, the lead story is the Men's win over Kalamazoo College. Coe had never defeated Kalamazoo, Coe has few significant "road" wins in the past decade, and Kalamazoo is my alma mater. Not only was there a difficult surface speed change for us, but it can be very difficult to play in the face of such tradition. Kalamazoo owns seven D3 NCAA titles, and it appeared to have had another dozen top four finishes.

 Even with two hours of practice, we struggled to return serve accurately, but that was neutralized by it being Kalamazoo's first match of the season. We were able to sweep the doubles, and play well in singles en route to a 7-2 victory over the #30 ranked team in the country. A nice "feather in the cap" for our quickly rising team.

Not to be outdone at all, the nine players that stayed at home took care of business with a 7-2 win over Westminster(MO), AND a 9-0 win over Saint Ambrose University. Coe had 17 players take part in competitive match play on Saturday! Coach Kris, with a ton of help from Betty Damisch and the Women's team, not only put out our usual lunch spread, but threw in a breakfast also! Because of the record number of Scholarship Weekend participants, the Racquet Center was host to a Friday evening dinner for 175. Coe had over 900 people visiting Friday and Saturday.

The Women's Team is prepping diligently for the onset of the Spring portion of their year. Coe did capture their 2nd straight Iowa Conference title last Fall, and fifth overall. Coach Kris will be taking the Team to the Chicago suburbs for Saturday matches with Calvin College and #10Wheaton College. Coe is ranked #11. All eleven players have improved over the off season, and are excited to get the challenging Spring schedule underway!

The men return to play at home Saturday where they face double duals once again. The morning match will be against Carthage College:  Coe will attempt to avenge last year's disappointing 5-4 loss to the Redmen. Carthage will be led by Jeff Lotz, the Central Regions #14 ranked player. In the afternoon, Coe hosts Buena Vista University in their opening Iowa Conference match. BVU is currently atop the IIAC standings with an unblemished 2-0 record. 

Finally, we are close to having enough data to publish the first Central Region Men's Quantitative Rankings of the year. One way or another, I will post tomorrow on the Rankings, and how we are compiling and evaluating the data.

Until then.....