Grinnell women’s tennis coach Barb Waite (right), who has led the Pioneers to three straight Midwest Conference team titles, has announced her resignation.

During her tenure at Grinnell, the women’s tennis program has become an elite team in the conference as well as the region.  The team has made six straight appearances in the conference tournament and earned the conference’s first automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament this spring. Grinnell has won 27 matches over the past three seasons, including a perfect 12-0 mark in conference play.

In her final season as coach, the Pioneers captured four individual conference titles as well as one doubles title.  Waite has also served as an assistant coach for the Pioneer softball team for the past four seasons.

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Kevin Girard (right) is the new tennis coach at Lawrence University, Director of Athletics Robert Beeman announced Tuesday (May 22).

Girard, who will take over both the Viking men's and women's teams, comes to Lawrence from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he has served as the assistant men's and women's tennis coach since September 2005.

While at Carnegie Mellon, Girard helped craft both the men's and women's teams into some of the best squads in the nation. The Tartans have had eight All-Americans and 10 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar Athletes during Girard's tenure.

A 2003 graduate of Michigan Technological University, Girard has a bachelor's degree in biological sciences and he holds the highest possible certification from the Professional Tennis Registry. A four-year letterwinner for the Huskies, he is the school's career leader in doubles victories.

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The Grinnell men’s and women’s tennis teams' first round opponents were revealed on April 30, as the NCAA announced the fields for the 2007 NCAA Division III Men’s & Women’s Tennis Team Championships. Both Pioneer squads earned the Midwest Conference’s automatic NCAA berths by claiming the league’s team titles.

About 72 hours after clinching their fourth consecutive MWC team title, Grinnell’s men will be heading to the campus of Gustavus Adolphus in Saint Peter, Minn., where they will face Luther in the first round of the tourney on Friday, May 4. The winner of the match earns the right to face the host school on Saturday, May 5. Andy Hamilton’s Pioneers fell to Luther 7-2 in early April, but were without No. 1 singles player Dan LaFountaine, who has since returned from injury, in the match.

The Grinnell women’s wait was 24 hours shy of 200 days, as the MWC plays its women’s regular-season in the fall, while the NCAA conducts its championship in the spring. Barb Waite’s squad will also be traveling to Gustavus Adolphus, where the Pioneers will take on UW-La Crosse in the first round on Friday, May 4. The winner will go on to face Carthage in the second round on Saturday, May 5.

NCAA Brackets - Men - Women

The other two repeat winners came from Grinnell, as junior Rachel Engh and sophomore Katie Clover both moved up flights en route to their second consecutive singles titles. Engh followed last year’s finals victory at No. 3 singles with a championship at No. 2 singles, while Clover moved up from No. 6 to No. 4 singles in her repeat bid.

The new conference singles champions included Beloit freshman Erika Zevin at No. 3 singles, Grinnell junior Margaret Block at No. 5 singles and Grinnell freshman Jill Akiyama at No. 6 singles.

Following third straight team title and a combined five singles and doubles winners, Grinnell head coach Barb Waite was voted the 2006 Midwest Conference Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year.

The Grinnell doubles tandem of sophomores Katie Colver and Maya Lipert (right) moved up one flight in 2006, but found the same result as a year ago at the 2006 Midwest Conference Doubles Championships. The duo followed last year’s No. 3 doubles title by winning the No. 2 flight at the University of Wisconsin’s Nielsen Tennis Center on Saturday, October 14.

If the pair of Pioneers jump up a flight again next season, they will have to reckon with the defending champs from St. Norbert, after sophomore Katye O’Brien and freshman Lauren Post won the flight in 2006. O’Brien was one half of the tandem that finished as the runner-up in No. 1 doubles in 2005.

Freshmen Erin Riutta and Allyson Yankle gave the Green Knights a second doubles title, as the pair capped their first-ever conference championship event with the No. 3 doubles crown.

Grinnell now owns an MWC-record six team titles, passing Beloit, who also entered the 2006 season with five championship trophies. The Pioneers became the first team since Beloit (2000-02) to win three-consecutive titles and the third team overall to accomplish the feat. Grinnell can match Ripon (1988-91) next season as the only squad to ever win four straight championships.

The 2006 Midwest Conference Women’s Tennis Championships unfold Friday, Saturday and Sunday October 13-15. The MWC Team Champion will be crowned at the Boylan Indoor Tennis Center in Rockford, Ill., on Friday. The action then shifts to the University of Wisconsin’s Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wis., where the individual doubles and singles champions will be crowned on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Five singles champions from a year ago return to defend their titles in 2006, including St. Norbert’s Kayte O’Brien (right), who made a run to the No. 1 singles championship as a freshman. Grinnell returns a trio of conference singles champs and one doubles tandem.

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Lake Forest junior tennis player Alli Berry (right) set a school record for No. 1 singles victories in a career with her 29 th victory on October 7. The record-setting victory came against Knox’s top singles players, as Berry cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win. Berry posted a 10-7 record in 2004, a 12-4 mark in 2005 and enters the MWC Tournament at 7-2 this season.

Frantz, who was the boys and girls tennis coach at Macomb High School in 2005-06, has also served as a private coach, summer instructor and Western Illinois University tennis camp assistant. Frantz is a 1983 graduate of Northern Illinois University and has also received degrees from Wheaton College Graduate School and Trinity Divinity School.

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Sheftel is currently an independent professional tennis instructor as well as a service learning coordinator at numerous schools in the area. Sheftel has 13 years of head coaching experience at the high school level. He directed the girl’s tennis team at Grayslake High School for three years while assisting on the boy’s squad. He also coached both the girl’s and boy’s programs at Highland Park High School for 10 seasons.

Sheftel graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology and Psychology.

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A native of Neenah , Anderson takes over a program that saw a dramatic improvement in 2005. Lawrence took fourth place in the MWC last season and posted a 13-4 overall record in dual matches. The Vikings took ninth in the league in 2004. Lawrence returns 12 letterwinners from its 2005 squad.

Anderson, who took over as the head coach of the Lawrence men's team in February, has spent the past few years working as a United States Professional Tennis Association certified teaching professional at Fox Cities Racquet Club. Anderson continues to work with junior and adult players of all levels and abilities.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Anderson has a bachelor's degree in environmental economics. He is currently attending the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and working toward his teaching certification.

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