2020 Season Preview
The Haverford College women's tennis team has made the Centennial Conference Tournament during each of the past three seasons and 10 of the last 11 years overall. Highlighting the recent success was the program's first-ever national ranking and an appearance in the Centennial Conference Championship in 2018. The Fords finished the 2019 season ranked 13th in the Atlantic South Region and return each of their top five players from that campaign to set up what should be another strong spring on the courts for Haverford tennis.
Co-captain Emily Shutman has garnered All-Centennial Conference recognition in singles and doubles during each of the last two seasons. Playing No. 1 singles during the 2017 and 2019 campaigns, Shutman holds 30 individual victories along with 31 more in doubles after earning first-team All-CC singles recognition last spring. She paired up with fellow co-captain Clara Farrehi to form a second-team All-CC doubles tandem last year at the top of the lineup for the Fords. Farrehi's 32 career victories in doubles already rank among the top 20 players in school history. Named the Centennial Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year in women's tennis last year, Farrehi also held down the No. 3 spot in the singles lineup.
Natalie Williams filled the No. 2 singles slot last spring on her way to six victories. She played doubles alongside Ananya Prakash where that duo got out to a quick 5-1 start. Prakash additionally played No. 5 singles last year where she recorded six victories. Claire Johnson adds even more returning experience after filling the No. 4 spot in the singles lineup. Following eight singles victories during her rookie season, Johnson is off to a 5-2 start after the fall season.
Mima Khazanov, Sarah Evenson, and Anne Tobin solidified the lineup in recent years and will look to bolster the team once again with that experience. Khazanov is a combined 6-1 between singles and doubles when playing in the spring lineup while Evenson saw significant time at No. 3 doubles last year on her way to five victories. Evenson is also 3-0 in spring singles play. Tobin, a sophomore, is already 1-0 in singles and 3-2 in doubles after the fall season as she looks to make a bigger impact in the coming season.
Three first-years joined the team in the fall and found immediate success. Isa Cossio played in the championship singles draw at the ITA Regional Championships and advanced to the quarterfinals of the B Doubles draw with Farrehi. Lisette Pham teamed up with Tobin to form Haverford's pairing in championship doubles while she made the quarterfinals of the B singles draw. Liv Pindzola also found success at the regional championships where she too made an appearance in the quarterfinals after entering the C draw for doubles.
Women's tennis challenged itself with a non-conference slate of all nationally-ranked teams last spring and the Fords will begin 2020 in similar fashion with a trip to No. 40 TCNJ this coming Sunday, February 16. Haverford's spring break trip will see the Fords trek to South Carolina before focusing almost exclusively on the Centennial Conference slate after returning north.
The Fords went 8-2 in Centennial Conference action last year as Haverford earned the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament before squaring off with rival Swarthmore in the semifinals. Each of the team's losses from a season ago came against nationally-ranked competition while the Fords will look to avenge those defeats this spring in hopes of a return to the national rankings.