Hopkins Tennis primed for titles

Our spring sports previews
conclude this week
with Hopkins' men's and
women's tennis squads.
Women's Tennis
The Lady Jays will enter
the 2012 season as the
perennial favorite in the
Centennial Conference,
coming off of their fifth
consecutive conference
title. Hopkins, who finished
last season ranked
11th in the final Intercollegiate
Tennis Association
(ITA) poll, welcomes back
a host of contributors from
last spring's championship
club, including senior captain
Courtney Boger, junior
Nandita Krishnan and
sophomore Hailey Hogan.
Krishnan should be
one of the Jays' top guns
after she competed in the
NCAA Singles Championships
and was named Centennial
Conference player
of the week three times in a
span of four weeks in 2011.
Hogan, along with classmates
Lauren Fields and
Brooke Pottish, impressed
during the Jays' fall season,
as Hogan advanced to
the ITA Southeast Regional
Singles and Doubles - coupled
with Pottish - title
rounds to become the first
player in program history
to play in both final matches
in the same year.
In addition, Fields and
Pottish won bouts in ITA
Southeast Regional play,
Fields taking home the
Blue 1 Singles draw, while
Pottish captured the Blue 2
Singles draw.
Hopkins will face some
new challenges this season,
however, as they lose
reigning conference player
of the year Carolyn Warren
and welcome in new head
coach Dave Woodring.
Chuck Willenborg, who
guided both the men's and
women's programs to new
heights in his eight years at
the helm of Blue Jay tennis,
was promoted to Director
of Tennis Operations during
the offseason.
The Jays will kick off
their season on Friday,
Mar. 2nd in Greencastle,
IN against eighth-ranked
Washington and Lee.
Men's Tennis
Hopkins men's tennis
began its spring season on
Feb. 18th in sterling fashion,
defeating Washington
and Lee, 7-2. The win comes
as no surprise, as the 13thranked
Blue Jays are primed
to win their sixth straight
and seventh overall Centennial
Conference title in 2012.
Two weekends ago, Hopkins
was led by senior Warren
Elgort, who won in both
third doubles, alongside
freshman Tanner Brown,
and at fourth singles. Senior
Jacob Barnaby and freshman
Noah Joachim also
added wins at first doubles.
In the fall season, the
Blue Jays' most impressive
showing came from the
racket of junior Andy Hersh
who finished 9-3 at the ITA
Small College National
Championships, good for
fourth-place. Hersh entered
the spring season tied with
Elgort for third all-time with
54 career wins at singles.
Hersh, who was ranked
sixth nationally heading
into the season, will patrol
the first singles position for
the Jays in 2012.
Like the women's side,
Hopkins will be under new
guidance this year. New
Head coach Jamie Engles
and the Jays will return to
action Sunday, Mar. 11th
against 11th-ranked North
Carolina Wesleyan.