June 1, 2005

A new coach, a new era of Johns Hopkins tennis. Head coach Chuck Willenborg took over the men's and women's tennis programs in the fall of 2004 and led both teams to their best finishes in recent history. The men's team, with six freshmen on its 14-player roster, went 13-2 overall and 8-0 in the Centennial Conference, winning its first-ever conference championship. Until then, no team besides Washington College had ever won the title; in fact, the Shoremen were undefeated in the conference until the Blue Jays defeated them 4-3 this year. Meanwhile the women's team set the school record for league wins in a season, posting an 8-2 conference mark and finishing 13-3 overall.

Freshman Chanont Vasoontara led the men's team with a 14-2 overall record at first singles, including a 4-0 performance and the championship title at the Centennial Conference Individual Tournament. He earned the top seed at the championships with a 6-1 regular season conference record and then won his first three matches of the tournament to advance to the title match against Washington College's Tim Riskie, who he defeated in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. Vasoontara also teamed with classmate Matthew Naftilan in the doubles championship, where they advanced to the title match and lost 6-4, 6-3 to Riskie and Asfand Farouk. At the end of the season, Vasoontara was selected to the All-Centennial Conference Team at singles, while Vasoontara and Naftilan earned all-conference honors at doubles. A third freshman, Kevin Ma, also earned all-conference honors after posting an 8-0 record in the CC, including a 6-0 mark at second singles.

The men opened their season with two wins over Catholic and Shepherd but then suffered their first loss of the year, 6-1, to Division I Loyola. The Blue Jays, then ranked #16 in the Atlantic South region, rebounded and defeated #9 Methodist, 5-2, before traveling to Florida for their Spring Break trip. Their southern welcome was not warm, as they lost their second match of the season to Northwood, 9-0, before edging St. Thomas, 5-4. The tough competition prepared the Jays well, and Hopkins would not lose again the rest of the season.

The Blue Jays made their first statement in the Centennial Conference when they shut out Haverford, 5-0, in their first conference game of the year; but the real message came one day later when they handed Washington College its first-ever CC loss. The Shoremen entered the match 90-0 all-time in Centennial play and had won 122 consecutive conference matches in a streak dating back to 1985. Although Vasoontara suffered his first and only conference loss, falling 6-2, 6-2 to Centennial Player of the Year Arturo Solis, Hopkins won at second, third, fifth, and sixth singles, and at third doubles to edge Washington, 4-3.

The rest of the year's matches weren't so close, as Hopkins allowed its final seven opponents just six points. The Blue Jays shut out Franklin & Marshall and McDaniel, defeated Salisbury, Gettysburg, Ursinus, and Muhlenberg by scores of 6-1, and ended the year with a 5-2 win over Dickinson to complete their undefeated conference season. It was Hopkins' first Centennial Conference Championship in school history, and the first time that Washington College did not win the title.

Hopkins sent six players to the Centennial Conference Individual Championships, jointly hosted by Muhlenberg and Swarthmore. Joining Vasoontara, Ma, and Naftilan were senior captain Justin Belisario, sophomore Nick Kennedy, and freshman Rafael Roberti. The unseeded doubles team of Belisario and Kennedy, who finished the regular season 8-1 overall, upset the #2 seed from Haverford before finishing with a loss in the second round. Meanwhile, Vasoontara and Naftilan won 8-3 and 8-1 in their first two rounds to advance to the semifinals the next day. After an 8-4 win in the final four, Vasoontara and Naftilan lost to a pair from Washington and finished as the CC runner-up. In the singles championship, Roberti easily won his first match 6-2, 6-2 before winning a three-set battle over the #4 seed in the second round. Roberti ended his season in the quarterfinals with a three-set loss to Haverford's Elmar Trust, who Vasoontara defeated 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals to earn a spot in the conference championship match. With the win over Riskie in the title match, Vasoontara earned Hopkins' first conference singles championship.

Despite winning the regular-season Centennial Conference Championship and boasting the singles champion and runner-up doubles team, Johns Hopkins was denied a trip to the NCAA tournament. The NCAA, which takes the top six teams in each region, selected Washington College among the five teams tied for sixth in the Atlantic South Region. But with its best season to date, and with all three all-conference picks returning for three more years, the Johns Hopkins men's tennis program has just begun its new era of success. Other key performers throughout the season were Morgan Macdonald, Michael Kelly-Sell, and Justin Lee.

The women's program also took a huge leap forward in 2005, nearly doubling its wins from the year before when it finished 7-4. Senior Michelle Liang led the way with a 9-7 overall record in the first and second singles spots, including a 4-0 mark at second singles, to earn Hopkins' only women's all-conference honor. In doubles play, Liang and Becky Busch went 15-1 overall and dominated at the third spot with an 11-0 record. Tanya Gulnik finished the year with a 16-3 singles record, while Vandna Jerath and Mary Gorski went 11-4 and 11-3 respectively and Jill Seidman won all seven of her matches at fifth and sixth singles.

The Blue Jays began the season unranked but immediately attracted attention when they defeated Salisbury, ranked #10 in the Atlantic South, in their first match. Jerath and Gulnik picked up wins at second and third singles, and combined for a win at second doubles to lead Hopkins to the 6-3 win. After splitting its two matches during a Spring Break trip to Florida, Johns Hopkins opened conference action with a 6-3 win over Washington College. In between two non-conference shutout wins against Goucher and Notre Dame, the Blue Jays continued their success in the CC with an 8-1 win over Gettysburg. Meghan Hasenauer and Seidman combined for an 8-0 win at second doubles, while Jerath won 6-2, 4-6, 10-8, handing Ali Moyer her first collegiate singles loss. But Hopkins' five-game winning streak was snapped in the second weekend of April, when they lost two straight conference games to Muhlenberg and Swarthmore, both by scores of 6-3. The Blue Jays bounced back with three 9-0 wins in four days, as they defeated Ursinus, McDaniel, and Bryn Mawr. Ranked #13 in the region in the mid-season poll, the Jays finished the year on a six-game winning streak with wins over Haverford, Dickinson, and #9 Franklin & Marshall. Hopkins won at second, third, fifth, and sixth singles, and at third doubles as it captured just its sixth win in 29 meetings with the Diplomats and earned a third-place finish in the Centennial Conference.

Liang and Busch's 9-0 record in conference doubles earned them a first-round bye at the Centennial Championships, where they won their first two matches - including an 8-5 over the #2 seed - before finishing with an 8-1 loss in the semifinals. They were one of two Hopkins doubles teams to compete at the Centennial Championships, as Gulnik and Seidman qualified for the tournament and were eliminated by the #4 seed in the quarterfinals. In the singles championships, sixth-seeded Gulnik and seventh-seeded Liang both picked up straight set wins in the first round, whereas Busch lost in three sets to the eighth seed. Liang ended her singles play with a 6-3, 7-4 (4) loss in the second round, while Gulnik advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-0 win before she was eliminated in the round of eight by the #3 seed.

Although the Hopkins women lose Jerath and Liang to graduation, they return junior Seidman, sophomores Busch and Hasenauer, and freshmen Gorski, Gulnik, Holly Clare, and Stephanie Carr. Clare finished her rookie year 5-1 at fourth through sixth singles, while Carr went 5-0 with four wins at sixth singles. The Blue Jays hope the 2005 season was the start of a new era of both men's and women's tennis at Johns Hopkins.

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