Brown Universtiy women’s tennis team ended its third-winningest season in program history with a 4-1 victory over Columbia, Sunday afternoon. Before the match, the team honored its only senior, Britany Lau, who finished her career with 97 wins overall, including 51 in doubles and 46 in singles.
The Bears’ 18 wins this season trail only the 1997 and 2009 teams, both of which had 19 wins. Brown’s 6–1 Ivy League record is also the third-best in program history, and second place in the conference is the highest mark since 1997.
Coach Lucie Schmidhauser said after the victory: “A great 4-1 win against a tough team from Columbia to finish the season on a high and give Britany a big dismissal on Senior Day. We came out so aggressive in the doubles and played with great clarity to get the doubles point. Phoebe and Lindsey played their typical fearless doubles game full of impressive volleys, overheads and aces.
Phoebe served the set with three aces in a row. Brit and Addie played a double so clever on line one to give us the all-important doubles point. In singles, Vivian extended the lead for us. She was relentless with her aggressive game plan, keeping her opponent on her heels the entire match. She served well and kept up her aggressive opening tennis Addie played some of her best tennis all weekend and I was impressed with the way she was able to turn the match around after losing the second set, coming out determined and aggressive in the third set, bringing us up 3-0 with a decisive 6-0 in the third set.
Ali gutted a three set match to take the match home for us on line one. After a disappointing first set tiebreak, she started to be more aggressive, gave her opponent less time and continued to score nonstop, completely taking the Columbia player out of her comfort zone to clinch the match for us. With Britany up a set and 1-0 in the second set playing her last game for Brown when Ali was deep in the third set, I was in no doubt our team were determined to finish the season in style and victorious.
What an end to an incredible season for this team! It’s a testament to their commitment to pushing each other on a daily basis and their relentless hunger to get better every day. I am confident and excited for the future of this team as we close a chapter with our amazing senior Britany Lau and continue to push the envelope of our league culture into the future.”
Women’s doubles
Lau/Ahlstrom (Brown) def. Zhang/Keita (Columbia) 6-4
Miller/Lee (Brown) vs. Amineni/Rimondini (Columbia) 5-3 unfinished
Hofflander/Peus (Brown) vs. Tewolde/Xu (Columbia) 6-2
Women’s singles
Ali Benedetto (Brown) def. Anna Zhang (Columbia) 60-77, 6-2, 6-2
Winta Tewolde (Columbia) def. Phoebe Peus (Brown) 6-2, 1-6, 6-3
Vivian Miller (Brown) def. Rachele Rimondini (Columbia) 6-3, 6-4
Britany Lau (Brown) vs. Fatima Keita (Columbia) 6-1, 1-0 unfinished
Lindsey Hofflander (Brown) vs. Clarine Lerby (Columbia) 1-3 unfinished
Addison Ahlstrom (Brown) def. Michelle Xu (Columbia) 6-2, 1-6, 6-0
About the Brown University
The Brown University is a private US university founded in 1764, located in the city of Providence in the state of Rhode Island, one of the most prestigious and selective universities in the North American continent, part of both the Ivy League and the Association of American Universities.
The admission rate with respect to submitted applications is around 6.6% with students from 80 countries. Financial aid from the university totals approximately $85 million each year, and more than 50% of students receive some form of financial aid to support their studies.
The annual tuition, in the 2009/2010 academic year, amounted to over fifty thousand dollars. The school was originally founded on March 3, 1764 by Baptist minister James Manning as Rhode Island College. The original charter stated that the college’s mission was to prepare students for adult life by providing them with training in languages, liberal arts, and science.
As a result, Brown still lacks business and law faculties. Manning was also the first principal of the college, which moved to its current location on east Providence in 1770. The support of the Brown family was instrumental in Brown’s relocation and subsequent financing and organizing.
The Brown family connections were very close as Joseph Brown taught physics at the university and John Brown served as treasurer from 1775 to 1796. For these reasons in 1804, a year after John Brown’s death, the university was renamed Brown University also honors John’s nephew, Nicholas Brown Jr., a 1786 graduate, who contributed $50,000.
Brown allowed women to apply to college in 1891. Among the teachers at Brown University we should mention the historian and biblical scholar Morton Smith.
Photo credits: Brown University website
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