Fall Rankings Out. Whitties In.

The ITA has released Fall Rankings. In DIII these are the most difficult to gauge nationally because many teams (including us) have only played the Fall Regional USTA/ITA, and with the Scholar/Athlete model of DIII, many players are abroad in the fall and don't play (including our own Kate Kunkel-Patterson - not abroad, but studying the Civil War in Gettysburg, PA for the fall).

What we have done, is had a great showing at both the regional and national USTA/ITA tournaments, gaining a #3 singles ranking for Alyssa in the West region. In my time at Whitman, this is the highest singles ranking anyone has achieved so far and to get it Alyssa had to beat a player who went to the NCAA National Tournament last spring.

Another first in my tenure at Whitman is to have three players ranked in the top 20 in the West region! Joining Alyssa are first year Whitties Morgan Lawless at #12 had a great Fall Regional coming in unseeded before working her way through seeded players to the semis.

Courtney Lawless had a tremendous first tournament as well, taking the #1 seed to three sets in the quarterfinals of singles to earn a #19 spot in the West.

But...she wasn't done yet as she joined with Alyssa to uphold their #1 seed, win the Regional, travel to Alabama and go 2-2 at the national tournament to finish 6th and earn the #2 ranking in the West Region to start the year, again the highest doubles ranking in my four years at Whitman (and proabably since the 1980's when Whitman Hall of Famer Lynn Greer led the team to NCAA and NAIA nationals).