2020 Competitive Season Begins: Bring it!

Preparing for national tournaments is always an interesting experience, particularly when practicing indoors on hard courts and then having to transition to outdoor clay courts. I am never sure what to expect, therefore I arrived in Florida three days before the start of the event. This was the first tournament of 2020 for the 0’s…

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The opportunity of pressure: U.S. World Championships

A recent USTA New England News story includes this quote from me: “We were over the moon we won and a bit surprised we played so well. We had a rag-tag team. I was battling a chronic Illness, Brenda tore her ACL last year, and Liane played in a tournament a couple weeks prior and…

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A new chapter? Moving On Up: Youth tennis program needs you!

Retirement may not be the correct word for this stage of my life. Perhaps “a new chapter” or “self-scheduled time” is a better way to describe my days. Aside from continuing to prepare for tennis competition, I have been quite busy as a board member of two non-profits, Moving On Up with Tennis and Education, and…

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2018 National Championships: Opponent, teammate, friend

I recently returned from the 2018 National Women’s Intersectional Team Championships in Phoenix, Arizona. I played #1 singles and #1 doubles on Team New England’s 65 and over team. There were 15 teams from different USTA sections in our division and 6 different divisions: 35 and over, 45, 55, 65, 75, and even an 80-and-over…

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Facing health challenges, racket in hand

Last week I met a woman at indoor tennis courts who told me that she recognized me at a Whole Foods and wanted to say “hi,” but thought that was too pushy. She had seen an article in the Springfield Republican about the success I had had in UMag, Croatia, winning the gold medal at…

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ITF World Team Champions

I arrived in UMag, Croatia not knowing what to expect except that for the first time in my life I was no longer playing for myself, my university, or my Intersectional Team. Now I was playing for my country and we were clothed accordingly in Adidas red, white and blue. UMag is a coastal resort…

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Team USA vs. Australia in ITF Finals in Croatia

Tina Karwasky played 1S, Wendy McColskey played 2S, and my partner Vicky McEvoy and I played doubles yesterday for the USA team against the British team at the ITF World Championships in the Kitty Godfree division. We won all positions in two well-fought sets, which sends us to the finals against Australia on Friday. Today,…

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World Championships in Umag, Croatia

My Women’s 65 Division team (myself, Vicky McEvoy, Tina Karwasky,  and Wendy McColskey) beat Canada 3-0 on our first day of the Super-Senior World Championships in Croatia. On Tuesday, we play Sweden (click here to open a new window to see match result stats on the ITF website). I embarked on this competition journey over a…

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Retirement?!

Ryan Bamford, the UMASS Athletic Director, gave me a rocking chair upon retiring as the tennis coach for 25 years and then quipped that he doubted I would use it. Seems he was right! Since the unexpectedly dramatic finish to the 2016-2017 Women’s Tennis season (I’ll share more about that another time), my retirement has…

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