Geneva’s biggest women’s tennis team ever looking to build towards success - Geneva College
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Geneva’s biggest women’s tennis team ever looking to build towards success

Tennis

Geneva head coach Mandee Craft, entering her 14th year, will be facing the challenge of Geneva’s biggest team ever – with 16 women on the roster. That creates its own challenges as the Golden Tornadoes look to build on last year’s 6-7 team.

“This gives me more people to manage and creates some challenges for practice,” said Craft. “I’ll have to split practice up and our first match is only in a couple of weeks on September 2.”

The Golden Tornadoes play their home matches at Bradys Run Park in Patterson Township and when they return to be action it will be with experience.

Geneva returns its top three players from last year in Elizabeth Stewart (Rochester, PA/Rochester), Sara Stoll (Norwalk, OH/Norwalk), and Samantha Jensen (Muskegon, MI/Mona Shores). Jensen has been elected as a team captain. In addition to their singles spots, Stoll and Megan Hinds (Montrose, PA/Montrose) combined for a 13-3 doubles record last season.

“Of the 16 players we have, six are new,” Craft said. “We only graduated our number five singles player but the newcomers could factor into things.”

Leading the group of newcomers is Katherine Dietrich of Beaver as the Golden Tornadoes look to move up in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference standings. Last year, Grove City won the conference title and Craft sees them as the favorites again.

“I’d have to say that Grove City would have to be the favorite again,” Craft said.

Wednesday, August 19 the league release its’ annual Women's Tennis Preseason Coaches' Poll confirming Craft’s suspicions with the Wolverines voted as the top see while predicting the Golden Tornadoes to finish seventh.

“Our roster is pretty spread out now. In our top five, we have one senior, two juniors, and two sophomores, so we are building towards the future.”

The Golden Tornadoes begin their season Wednesday, September 2 at Bethany College.

Geneva College invites students to step forward and leap ahead with an academically excellent, Christ-centered and affordable education. Offering nearly 40 undergraduate majors, Adult Degree Programs with fully online and campus-based options, and high-demand advanced graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. U.S. News & World Report ranks Geneva as a Top 10 Best Value with one of the Top 100 engineering programs in the nation. Adhering to the inerrancy of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God’s word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today’s world. 

Aug 19, 2015