Women's Tennis Team Begins With a Bang
By Betsy Mork
Staff Writer

Amidst the deafening roars of a nearby drag race, the Pomona-Pitzer women's tennis team played its first match of the season last Friday in La Verne. The Hens swept all three doubles and all six singles, cruising to a 9-0 victory. It was a solid beginning for a team with high hopes for the season ahead.

Five players are returning from last season's squad. Vicki Chen '04, Whitney Henderson '04, Kelli Howard '04, Betsy Mork '04, and Kelsey Chance '05 are supported this year by a strong group of new players. The Hens lost more than half of last year's team to graduation, transfer, and injury, but a new crop of talent has appeared with the addition of Kim Brettschneider '04, Julie Hurlbutt '04, Rebecca Quatinetz '04, Margot Filstein '05, Lauren Calton '06, Lindsay Crawford '06, and Natalie Yuen '06. Ann Lebedeff returns for her fifth year as the Pomona-Pitzer women's coach, assisted by two of her former players, Meghan Gould '01 and Courtney Chavez '02.

After a trip to the nationals in Texas in 2001 and in Virginia in 2002, the Hens are eagerly working toward the NCAAs again this year. They won't have quite so far to go this time, as the tournament will be held in Redlands, California.

The Pomona-Pitzer's Women's Tennis has a full schedule to focus on before looking ahead to Nationals. The women will come up against such top ranked teams as CMS, Trinity of Texas, Emory, Gustavus, Washington University, and Amherst in the coming months, all building toward the culmination at Redlands in May. They will travel north to Ojai and south to San Diego. The majority of their matches this season are at home, and hopefully they'll be well supported. This weekend the Hens will play Cal Tech at 9:30 A.M. on Saturday and UC Santa Cruz at 11 A.M. on Sunday.

Men's Tennis is playing Chapman at 2 P.M. on Saturday.