Ripon has announced the hiring of Kevin Francis as the head coach of the school’s men's tennis team. Francis is a 1993 graduate of Ripon and is currently tied for eighth on Ripon's all-time win list, with a career record of 63-11. He was a part of three consecutive Midwest Conference championships (1990-92) and was named to the 1991 NCAA Division III All-American team, while advancing to the doubles quarterfinals of that year's DIII National Tournament.

After graduating from Ripon, Francis entered the coaching ranks as an assistant at Michigan State University in 1994. The following year, Francis was hired as the head coach at Alma College (MI). He would later go on to coach the Ripon women's tennis team from 2003-2004. Francis has also been a tennis pro at various tennis clubs in the Midwest, including clubs in Chicago and Milwaukee.

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Ripon men's tennis coach Paul VandenBoogaard announced his resignation on June 18, ending his two-year stint as head coach of the Red Hawks. In his two seasons, VandenBoogaard's teams finished with a combined record of 12-19, including a 6-2 mark in conference play.

The Red Hawks won the Midwest Conference North Division during his first season with a perfect 4-0 record in the MWC. VandenBoogaard jumped into the head coaching position prior to the 2007 season, one year after graduating from Ripon, where he had tremendous success in his four years as a player for the Red Hawks.

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Amanda Barkema was named the head men's and women's tennis coach at Knox College on May 27.

Barkema is currently working at the Wakonda Country Club in Des Moines, Iowa, where she teaches clinics and organizes the tennis pro shop. A 2008 graduate of Wartburg College, where she earned her degree in Business Administration and a minor in Accounting, Barkema was a four-year tennis letter winner for the Knights.

Barkema worked as a student assistant tennis recruiter and assistant equipment manager at Wartburg in 2007-08. She served as an assistant junior varsity tennis coach at Waverly-Shell Rock High School from 2005-07.

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Following an NCAA release on May 5 announcing the selections to the 2008 NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles and Doubles National Championship Tournaments, Grinnell’s doubles tandem of Dan LaFountaine and Nate Fox were announced as qualifiers. That status has since been reversed following an appeal to the NCAA Committee that was upheld based upon a voting error. LaFountaine and Fox were replaced in the NCAA Tournament Doubles field, but remain on as alternates should another tandem in the region be forced to withdraw for any reason.

Grinnell’s run in the 2008 NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament came to an end on May 3, as the Pioneers fell to Washington University 5-1 on its home court in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Bears entered as the No. 5 team in the country and were the host and top-ranked team in the five-team regional.

Grinnell’s No. 3 doubles tandem of seniors Daniel Malarkey and Jordan Lee fell 8-4 to open the match, but freshman Juan Carlos Perez and senior D.J. Warden evened the match score at 1-1 after winning the No. 2 flight 8-5. Washington took the lead for good with a victory in the No. 1 flight, as Grinnell’s junior duo of Nate Fox and Dan LaFountaine was edged 8-6. Washington then scored singles victories in the No. 3 (Fox), No. 4 (Warden) and No. 6 (Sam Raife) flights to advance to Sunday’ regional final.

The Grinnell men’s tennis team earned the second NCAA Tournament team victory in conference history (Ripon, 1997) on May 2 when Andy Hamilton’s Pioneers downed Westminster 5-0 in a first round matchup.

The match took place on the campus of Washington University, the top seed and host of the regional, who Grinnell will now face at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 3. The host Bears, currently ranked second in the country, received a fist round bye.

The Pioneers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the match, as all three doubles tandems earned victories. Juniors Nate Fox and Dan LaFountaine cruised to an 8-2 win at No. 1 doubles, while freshman Juan Carlos Perez and senior D.J. Warden won convincingly (8-3) at No. 2. The senior tandem of Daniel Malarkey and Jordan Lee closed doubles play with an 8-6 win in the third flight.

Grinnell’s top two singles players then took care of business to clinch the victory, as LaFountaine and Carlos Perez won their matches at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, by identical 6-0, 6-1 margins. Grinnell won the first set in each of the four other unfinished singles matches as well.

The Grinnell-Washington winner will face the winner of DePauw vs. Wheaton (IL) at noon on Sunday, May 4.

Grinnell wrapped up its fifth consecutive Midwest Conference Men’s Tennis Team title on Friday (April 25) and found out its first round opponent for the 2008 NCAA Tournament on Monday (April 28) afternoon.

Andy Hamilton’s squad received the No. 4 ranking in the five-team NCAA Central Regional and will face No. 5 Westminster College on Friday, May 2 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The winner of match will face host and top-seed Washington on Saturday. The other half of the regional is made up of No. 2 DePauw and No. 3 Wheaton (IL), who will also meet on Saturday. Times for all matches will be announced tomorrow.

Westminster (12-6), located in Fulton, Missouri, enters the NCAA Tournament via automatic qualifier status after winning the SLIAC conference tournament and is making its second straight NCAA tourney appearance. The Pioneers and Blue Jays did not face any common opponents in 2008.

Grinnell (19-6) faced three NCAA Tournament qualifiers during the 2008 regular-season, posting an 0-3 record against those squads. The Pioneers were edged by Luther and UW-Whitewater by identical 5-4 scores, while also falling to Regional host Gustavus Adolphus by an 8-1 tally.

Grinnell was the recipient of the MWC’s automatic berth to the NCAA tourney after its win on Friday. The MWC received its annual AQ status last year, making Grinnell the second to earn the AQ and the third team in MWC history to qualify for a chance to compete for a National Championship. Grinnell was edged by Luther 5-3 in the opening round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament.

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Grinnell closed the 2008 Midwest Conference Men’s Tennis Championships with an exclamation point on April 27, as the Pioneers swept the three contested flights in the MWC Doubles Tournament. The sweep capped a weekend where Grinnell left the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisconsin with its fifth straight MWC team title, five of six individual singles championships and a league-best total of 105 points in the team point standings.

The No. 3 doubles flight belonged to Grinnell seniors Jordan Lee and Daniel Malarkey. Lee earned his third career and consecutive title in the flight, with each victory coming with a different partner, while Malarkey earned his first career gold in doubles play.

Freshman Juan Carlos Perez opened his conference career with a No. 2 doubles title, while senior partner D.J. Warden closed his with the second doubles championship of his career. The pair cruised to the victory, as none of their three opponents won more than three games in a set.

The junior tandem of Dan LaFountaine and Nate Fox captured the No. 1 doubles crown with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Monmouth’s Kevin Kamenjarin and Kyle Korb. LaFountaine and Fox have reached the No.1 doubles finals together in each of their collegiate seasons, winning the flight in 2006 before falling in 2007. The Monmouth duo reached the finals after outlasting Lawrnce’s top doubles team during a classic three-set match that spanned over three hours.

One day after winning its fifth consecutive Midwest Conference Team Championship at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisconsin, Grinnell’s men captured five of six flights in the 2008 MWC Singles Championship Tournament.

Grinnell freshman Juan Carlos Perez and sophomore Sam Raife rolled to their titles in the No. 2 and No. 5 singles flights, respectively, combining to lose just 17 games in their six collective matches.

Grinnell seniors Daniel Malarkey (#4) and Jordan Lee (#6) both needed to rally to claim the first singles titles of their respective careers. Lake Forest’s Andrew Fretter took the first set from Malarkey 6-3, before Malarkey rebounded to take the next two sets 6-3, 6-0. Lake Forest’s Chris Paterakos topped Lee by a 6-2 score to open the finals, but Lee responded with 6-4, 6-0 victories.

Lawrence sophomore Ryan Dunn, who is in his first season with the Vikings, claimed the top singles flight with a 6-1, 7-6 (5-0) win over Grinnell junior Dan LaFountaine. The loss is the third in arrow in the finals for LaFountaine, who fell to four-time No. 1 singles champ Aaron Sunday (St. Norbert) in the finals as a freshman and sophomore.

The final flight (#3) of the day went to Grinnell junior Nate Fox, who outlasted Lake Forest freshman Jon Flaksman in three sets by scores of 6-7 (0-6), 6-1, 7-6 (0-5) in a marathon match that came up 15 minutes shy of three hours.

The MWC Doubles Championship Tournament begins at 8 a.m. on Sunday, April 27.

Grinnell opened play at the 2008 Midwest Conference Men’s Tennis Championships on April 25 by extending its MWC team title streak to five in a row, as the Pioneers downed Lake Forest 5-1 at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisconsin to claim the MWC Championship and the conference’s automatic qualifier to the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

Grinnell now owns 11 conference crowns overall and matched former MWC member Carleton’s streak of five straight from 1971-1975. The only longer streak in league history is Ripon’s eight in a row from 1985-1992.

Grinnell’s tandems of Dan LaFountaine & Nate Fox and Juan Carlos Perez & D.J. Warden got the Pioneers going in the finals by winning the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles points, respectively. A No. 3 doubles win by Chris Paterakos & Joe Campagna got the Foresters on the board, but LaFountaine (#1) and Carlos Perez (#2) netted singles victories, allowing D.J. Warden to clinch the match with a victory at No. 4 singles.

The Pioneers and Foresters both advanced to the finals by posting identical 5-0 victories over their MWC North counterparts Lawrence and St. Norbert, respectively. The semifinal win was the 200 th men’s dual victory of head coach Andy Hamilton’s (right) career at Grinnell.

St. Norbert topped Lawrence 5-2 in the third-place match.

The MWC Singles Championship Tournament begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 26.

The 2008 Midwest Conference Men’s Tennis Championships will play out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday April 25-27 at the Nielsen Tennis Center on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, Wisconsin. The MWC Team Champion will be crowned on Friday, with the individual singles and doubles tournaments following on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

The team tournament lineup features two teams ending short tourney hiatuses, as Andy Hamilton's (right) four-time defending conference champion Grinnell (16-7, 4-0 MWC) team enters as the top seed in the South Division and St. Norbert (13-12, 4-0) does the same in the North. Lawrence (8-8, 3-1) makes its first tourney appearance since 2003 and will face Grinnell in one semifinal, while Lake Forest (15-5, 3-1) ends a three-year absence and matches up against St. Norbert in the other semi. Grinnell can become the third school in league history to win five straight league titles with another crown in 2008, joining former MWC member Carle ton (1971-75) and Ripon (1985-92), who tallied five and eight straight championships, respectively.

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The St. Norbert men’s tennis team enjoyed a historic weekend, as the team accomplished a pair of program firsts. The Green Knights’ 6-3 triumph over Ripon on April 20 in the team’s regular-season finale was not only the program’s first-ever dual meet victory over Ripon, but it also clinched the school’s first outright MWC North Division title.

Craig Mours (right), a four - time letter winner for the men's tennis team at Carroll, has been tabbed to lead his alma mater, athletic director Kris Jacobsen announced on July 25.

Mours graduated Cum Laude from Carroll in May of 2005 with a bachelor of science degree in Graphic Communications and Photography. Mours replaces Rick Mobley, who stepped down after three seasons to concentrate on his roles as head men's soccer coach and Director of Sports Information at Carroll.

Mours has served as a tennis instructor for the Wisconsin Rapids Park and Recreation program and most recently at Sentry World in Stevens Point.

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