Alison Swain New USC Coach, Women’s KOW Draft Completed, Milwaukee Tennis Classic, French Open Update, Team Luke Documentary

Tagged with: Alison Swain, French Open, ITA KickOff Weekend Draft, Michael Venus, Milwaukee Tennis Classic, Team Luke Foundation, USC

The biggest coaching opening on the women’s side was filled today when USC Athletic Director Lynn Swann announced the hiring of Alison Swain as the Trojans new women’s head coach. Swain, who is a 2001 Williams graduate, had been coaching at her alma mater since 2007 and in those 10 years she won a staggering 8 NCAA Division III National Championships while her squads went 224-28 (.889). Swain replaces six-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year Richard Gallien who stepped down after 22 years on the job. Below are a few quotes from USC’s release and the Williams College release also has some quotes as well. 

“We are delighted and excited to welcome Alison Swain to the Trojan Family,” said USC AD Lynn Swann. “She is a proven winner as a head coach. Winning a national championship at any level is difficult to do; winning 8 of them like Alison has done in a 10-year span is beyond impressive. We are confident that she can bring the Women of Troy to that championship level.

“She has a vision and a plan for our program. She is an educator and a developer of tennis players, of scholar-athletes and of women. She will create a supportive and healthy culture for our program that will lead to success in the classroom, in life and on the tennis court.”

 

Said Alison Swain: “I would first like to thank Lynn Swann, (USC associate athletic director) Scott Jacobson and the entire search committee for the incredible opportunity to join the USC family. USC has an exceptional athletics tradition, but more importantly the university truly values creating an overall amazing experience for its student-athletes in the classroom, on the court and beyond.

“I have had an incredible 10 years at Williams and am so grateful for the opportunity I was given to coach high-caliber student-athletes and be part of a close-knit and driven athletic department. It is exciting for me to enter into a similar environment at USC. I am honored to have this opportunity to work with the players to create an exciting future for USC women’s tennis. I can’t wait to meet the entire team and get started.”

 

The 2018 ITA Division I Women’s Kick-Off Weekend Draft was held earlier today with the Oklahoma State, Kentucky, and Ohio State regionals filling up the quickest.  Kentucky was an appealing choice due to it being the lowest ranked team to host a regional plus it will have to replace its No. 1 (Sutjiadi) and No. 6 (Chumney) singles starters. Ohio State, which finished the year ranked No. 3, was a hot choice due to the Buckeyes graduating four singles starters (Niehaus/Kowase/De Santis/Angles Paz) while Oklahoma State was popular due to the Cowgirls having to replace its top two (Lushkova/Adamovic) singles starters plus one of its strongest doubles players (Tur Mari). 

Seven of 15 regionals were completely filled up before a team (La-Monroe) chose to go to Florida while Texas Tech was the final regional to get filled with St. Mary’s (CA) having no choice but Lubbock for the 45th pick. Long Beach State was the only school that took a pass during the draft while 16 other schools opted out before the draft began. Full results including the order of selection are listed on the ITA’s event page.

The men’s draft will be held on Thursday, beginning at noon eastern, with the ITA announcing all the selections in real-time on its Facebook page. Up until this year the KOW draft hadn’t seen any publicity outside of my site so it’s great to see the ITA pushing it out there for all to enjoy.  

 

 

The ITA and the Milwaukee Tennis Classic announced a partnership that will award the men’s and women’s singles champions with wildcards into the newly created Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Indian Wells, California. The MTC, which has been held every year since 1975, has been more of a regional tournament over the last several years but hopefully this announcement will entice schools from outside of the region to send some strong representatives. The MTC will be held from September 21-24 and the finals will be held inside the 10,000-seat UWM Panther Arena in downtown Milwaukee. The ITA’s release, which is available here, has all the other details about the partnership. 

 

 

Michael Venus (LSU ’09) advanced to his first-ever Grand Slam semifinal at the French Open when he and Ryan Harrison ousted the No. 7 seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Venus had never made it out of the first round in three prior doubles appearances at Roland Garros but on Friday he and Harrison will play for a spot in the finals against Robert Farah (USC ’10) and Juan Sebastian Cabal. 

 

 

The College Sports Weekly “Pray for Luke” documentary which aired recently on Fox College Sports is now available online via YouTube. Tony Minnis narrates the 25-minute documentary which tells the tragic story of Luke Siegel who suffered major head trauma from a golf cart accident that occurred on July 28, 2015. Tim Siegel started the Team Luke Foundation to bring awareness and provide critical support and assistance to families with children who have suffered an anoxic or traumatic brain injury. Updates on Luke can be found on the Pray For Luke Siegel Facebook page.