By: Alex Mellion
This past weekend, the second-seeded women’s tennis team defeated Emerson College, 5-4, in the GNAC semifinals, before losing to top-seeded Simmons College in the finals, 6-0. This marked the third straight championship game appearance for the team, with one win in 2007.
Coming into the season, assistant coach Isaac Stahl felt the team had great potential, but he was a bit unsure as to how the team would perform given the fact that they were so young.
“I thought we had a great potential to do well this year, but with such a young team it is hard to say how they would do in serious competition,” Stahl said. “We had 3 new players in the starting line-up with little or no real match experience, 2 returning sophomores and one junior from last year’s team.”
Those two returning sophomores were Rebecca Copeland, who finished the season with a 4-4 record in singles play and was named to the GNAC All-Sportsmanship team, and Lauren Cameron, who had her second straight undefeated regular season and now has a career record of 22-0 in singles play.
Cameron was named to the GNAC’s All-Conference First Team for the second straight season.
The Rams’ Achilles heel this season was a tough Simmons College team, a squad that handed them two of their three total conference losses, the second of which took place in the championship game.
“Simmons is a deep team that plays a strong schedule, which allows their players to gain more experience,” remarked Stahl. “We are fortunate to get the talent that we have, but it is a short season to bring them up to a championship level…however, I am very proud of what we accomplished.”
2009 marked the second straight year in which Simmons and Suffolk have met for the GNAC title, with Simmons winning both years. The last time the Rams won the GNAC title was in 2007, in which the team went undefeated on their path towards the championship.
Despite the setback this year, head coach Steve Counihan and assistant coach Stahl believe that the Rams will be right back in the upper echelon of the GNAC next year.
“We will definitely be in the top half next season,” he said. “We are always are one of the strongest teams in the conference and I think SU tennis is the most consistently strong sport at Suffolk.”
“We were disappointed to lose, but that is the way it goes,” he added. “I am a forward thinker and this was just a stepping stone in our return to another championship”.
The Lady Rams will return all but one of their players next season (senior and co-captain Thuy Le will be graduating), all the more reason to expect even more success from what is a young but rapidly maturing Suffolk women’s tennis team.
With this year’s experience under their belts, the Lady Rams, led by a young group of players who already have gained a lot of invaluable “big match” experience, should remain a title contender in the GNAC for the foreseeable future.
