While most of her colleagues were occupied giving lectures or grading midterms over the last few weeks, Math Professor Marjorie "Molly" Hahn was tied up in a different kind of pursuit: competitive international tennis.
Hahn represented the United States as one-fourth of the silver medal-winning Alice Marble Cup team for women 60 and over in Antalya, Turkey, from Oct. 12-18. Hahn competed in doubles during the tournament and together with her partner Pat Keleman amassed a 4-1 record through five rounds of play. Her team's sole loss came in the finals to France, a team that featured two former WTA players.
"This was [Hahn's] first time at a world championship, so it was a special honor for her," said Joan Oelschlager, director of press relations for the Marble Cup team. "[The team] came in third last year, so it was a real accomplishment to get to the final this year against France, which had two tour players."
While Hahn is a seasoned veteran of the USTA national and regional tournament circuit, the opportunity to represent her country on an international stage marked a unique opportunity. Although Hahn was not intimately familiar with her teammates when she was first selected, the group developed camaraderie as the event wore on.
"From the point of selection in June, we were on the phone communicating and talking a lot," Hahn said. "We developed an almost immediate [connection]. We even had team mascots that we brought to all the matches ... [They were] these little beanbag-type bears."
"They were all women who could get along well with one another," Oelschlager added. "There were no prima donnas in this group."
Hahn and Keleman, who had never played together in a doubles pairing prior to arriving in Turkey, focused intently on nurturing their relationship on the court.
"We arrived on Thursday, but the matches didn't start until Sunday, so we practiced every day between then," Hahn said. "We would wake up and start playing at 7 a.m. It was still dark at that time, so we'd start off playing mini-tennis and getting used to the court and then move back as it got light outside."
Despite not dropping a set in their victories over Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden leading up to the finals, Hahn and Keleman were constantly discussing how to best mesh their playing styles.
"She has very good ground strokes, so she likes to stay back, while I'm more of a traditional doubles player who likes to have both players at the net at the same time," Hahn said. "She hits wonderful wide-angle shots from the deuce side of the court, though, and when she hits it wide, it neutralizes the net because if your opponent reaches for the shot, then she's leaving the down-the-line shot completely undefended. We talked a lot about what would make us most effective as a team."
The tournament, which took place at a resort on the Mediterranean Sea, was played on red clay, a significantly slower surface than that of the courts most American players are used to. Hahn, a doubles specialist, tends to thrive on faster surfaces like grass and hard courts, so she had to adjust to a slightly different style of play. Still, she maintains that a faster surface likely would have not have altered any of the match results.
"I don't think it was a major factor in our outcome with France," she said. "Europeans are stronger on clay and they play a different style in that they serve and volley less than the Americans or [the] Australian players. But after several days of practicing on [the red clay], I actually got to liking it."
One of Hahn's proudest moments of the tournament came off the court, during one of the team's early-round matches. Apart from playing doubles, Hahn's responsibilities included coaching the No. 1 singles player, Brenda Carter, during her matches. Preparing for the match against South Africa, Hahn used her strength as a strategist to help Carter come from behind to win a tough three-set contest.
"One of my strengths is that I'm good at figuring out how to beat an opponent," Hahn said. "After the South African player -- who ended up winning the individual singles competition the following week -- won the first set, I talked Brenda through how she should change her strategy by keeping the ball deep so she could use her drop shot, working her opponent's backhand and mixing up her serve.
"The highlight was between the second and third sets when they had a 10-minute break and Brenda and I did a lot of talking," she continued. "The South African player came out and said something like, 'What are you gonna do with all that coaching?' I think it was clear to her that Brenda had counteracted what she was doing, and it was a real turning point. That match was key because it put us in the opposite side of the bracket from France."
Another aspect of the tournament that Hahn said she enjoyed was the chance to interact with women from all over the world.
"It was a real privilege to represent my country, and it was wonderful to interact with so many different people," she said. "We had dinner with people from different teams. It was right before the presidential election, so everyone was very interested in U.S. politics and how it would affect them."
Hahn has yet to decide whether or not she will participate in future Marble Cups.
"It was a wonderful experience, but it's not easy to make the team or to get away because the competition is actually during the Tufts academic year," she said. "The point at which I retire is when I'll do as much as possible."
