In the span of little over a year, tri-captains junior Julia Browne and senior Meghan McCooey of the women's tennis team have amassed quite a résumé as doubles partners.
What they accomplished over the weekend, however, may be their crowning achievement.
The Jumbos' duo captured its second consecutive ITA Small College national championship Friday evening in Mobile, Ala., knocking off TCNJ's pairing of senior tri-captain Jackie Shtemberg and sophomore Felice Trinh in the final 7-5, 6-3. With the victory, Browne and McCooey became one of only two repeat champions in the history of the women's Div. III doubles tournament. It was the latest triumph for a tandem that has posted a lifetime mark of 35-6 in dual-match and tournament play.
"Winning these two titles with Julia, it's just something when I look back years from now that I'm going to remember for the rest of my life," McCooey said.
"It was really just so exciting," she continued. "We both wanted to give it our best effort and come home proud of the way we played, and we definitely did. Winning it was just icing on the cake. It was really awesome."
Seeded second in a draw that featured the winners of the eight ITA regional tournaments held in September, Browne and McCooey encountered little resistance en route to the title. They blazed through the first two rounds by identical 6-4, 6-3 scores to set up a finals showdown against Shtemberg and Trinh, who had upset the tournament's top seed in the first round and a one-time NCAA national semifinalist in the second. But the upstart TCNJ duo could not mount much of a challenge against Browne and McCooey, who clinched their second title with a straight-sets win.
Since being paired together for the first time at the start of last season, the Jumbos' tandem has twice appeared in the finals of the ITA New England Regional Championships, winning the crown this year, and posted a quarterfinal finish at the 2009 NCAA championships.
"It's really amazing — neither one of us were doubles players before we came to college at all," Browne said. "When we started playing together last year, we both knew that we'd click because we were really good friends and because we were always were competing on the team and pushing each other. But I don't think either one of us could have guessed the level of success that we'd wind up having."
"I think we've come so far," McCooey added. "I remember starting college, I had barely played doubles. Coach [Kate Bayard] just taught us so much, between formations and how to be aggressive and take control of the net. From where I began my freshman year to where I am now are just two completely different places as far as doubles. It's really cool to recognize that."
Browne also tacked on a third-place showing in the singles draw, putting an exclamation point on Tufts' banner fall campaign. She reached the semifinals of the singles tournament for the second straight year. Despite finishing as the runner-up at the ITA New England Singles Championship, Browne received an invitation to represent the region at Nationals when champion Kristin Alotta of Williams decided not to attend.
In the semifinal, Browne squared off against Chapman junior Liz Lewis in a rematch of last year's third-place match. Lewis once again got the better of the Tufts junior, taking a 6-4, 6-0 decision.
"Obviously, going into the tournament, I really wanted to win the whole thing, but the girl that I lost to in the semifinals, she just outplayed me," Browne said. "She hit a lot of winners and made very, very few errors. She really just pushed me back off the court, and I couldn't really get a rhythm against her. There really wasn't much I could do to throw her off."
But Browne bounced back in the third-place match, where she faced off against Carnegie Mellon sophomore and childhood friend Laura Chen. Browne's 7-6 (6), 6-2 victory against her one-time practice partner and high school rival gave her the best singles finish at a national tournament of her career.
"We grew up in New York together playing tennis our whole lives," Browne said. "We practiced together all the time, so I knew exactly how to play her. I really wanted to win that third-place match because I wanted to go out of the tournament playing really well, and I definitely think I did that. I'm proud of the way I played, and hopefully I'll get another chance next year to win it all."
With the fall portion of their 2009-10 season now behind them, the Jumbos will head into the offseason optimistic about what awaits them in the spring, when they'll play the bulk of their dual-match schedule.
"This fall, definitely throughout our whole lineup, we just showed a lot of talent," McCooey said. "It's going to be really exciting to see what happens in the spring. I think our whole team is just really excited to start training and get ready for the spring season, especially since everyone ended on such a great note."
