Wells Tennis Team Wins Tournament Berth
The Wells College Express women's tennis team traveled to Clarks Summit, Pa. last weekend to compete in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) team and individual championships. In so doing, the Express earned the NEAC's automatic qualification to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tennis tournament, the first in the College's athletic history.
The Express entered the NEAC tournament as the #4 seed last and upset #1 seed Keuka College in the semifinals of the team championship on Friday. In the championship round, the Express took on #2 seed Penn State-Berks, who defeated #3 seed Keystone College in the other semifinal round. Due to their provisional member status of the NCAA, Penn State-Berks did not receive the qualifying bid. The first round of the 27th annual Division III women's tennis championships will be held May 2-4, 2008.
The tennis team continued their success on Saturday as eight of the nine flights qualified for the individual championships. The team met their goal by placing in the top three in every position, and two flights came away with NEAC championship wins.
"This whole season has been a full team effort as each individual player has contributed equally to our team's success," said Express first year head coach Andrew Gross. "The team reached its three season goals: finish with a 9-5 regular season record, reach the NEAC championship final match, and have all our players place in the top three at individual championships. The team is intrinsically and extrinsically motivated and knows how to come through in the big matches – I couldn't be more pleased."
The women finished the regular season 10-6 overall and 4-2 in conference play. The team will participate in practices and matches during the spring tennis season to prepare for the May tournament.
Founded in 1868, Wells College is a Division III member of NCAA and joined the North Eastern Athletic Conference this fall. Wells offers the following intercollegiate teams — Women: field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis and cross country. Men: cross country, swimming, soccer, and lacrosse. Men's basketball is being introduced this year at the club level and will elevate to varsity in 2008-09; women's basketball will be sponsored at the varsity level in 2009-10.
