SLIAC Tennis: A New Challenger Emerges
Over the next few weeks, we will be taking a closer look at the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference spring sports history. We will look at the sports by each decade, examining the 30 years of SLIAC history, culminating with a send-off for SLIAC seniors. Our final decade for SLIAC tennis brings us to the 2010s; a decade that saw the re-establishment of a men's dynasty and the emergence of a new challenger in women's tennis.
The 2010s started off in the same fashion as the '00s with Westminster College winning three of the first four men's titles in the decade. That would give the Blue Jays 12 tournament titles in a 14-year stretch. They would make a pair of NCAA Division III National Tournament trips (2010 and 2011) as they transitioned from Jeff Borengasser to David Dyson as their head coach. SLIAC Hall of Famer Tony Stephenson (2010-13) led the charge; winning a pair of SLIAC Men's Player of the Year awards and All-Conference honors in both singles and doubles all four years. Dyson meanwhile would go on to win three SLIAC Women's Coach of the Year awards before departing in 2018.
Principia College won its first SLIAC Men's Tennis Tournament title in seven years when they broke through for a win in 2012. After missing out on a repeat the following year the Panthers rolled off six more titles to close out the decade; giving them 17 in program history. Their conference record streak of Men's Player of the Year award winners continues to this day, having won seven straight. After winning the award in his freshman season, Paul Sanderude closed out his collegiate career with another Player of the Year award in 2012; beginning the streak. Jason Wissman, just the second player in SLIAC history to win three Player of the Awards, won from 2013-15 and was followed by fellow Panthers Joey Sander (2016), Jules Kitchingman (2017), Wyatt Dale (2018), and Daniel Gomez (2019). In 2019 Principia became the first men's team to advance to nationals in eight years.
Over on the women's side, the Panthers add six more titles, with head coach Shannon Carney, to the program trophy case. Much in the same fashion as the men's side, the Panther women dominated the Player of the Year award; winning eight for the decade. Sarah Corbitt won in 2010 and was followed by Kelly Adams (2012) and Hanne Andersen (2015) as well as multiple-time winners in Carlie Sanderude (2011 and 2013) and Paige Cooley (2016, 2017, 2019).
The first 19 years of SLIAC women's tennis saw only two different programs take home the title with Principia cruising to 15 of those titles. However, it was evident immediately that the '10s would be a different story. Mike Siener took over the Gorloks program in 2009 and in 2010 he recorded his second straight 12 win season, culminating in the program's first-ever title. Webster would add another title in 2012 when they won a school-record 19 matches. In 2014 they welcomed in a new head coach, Martha Davis-Goldstein; who would continue the programs' success with two more titles in 2015 and 2018. The Gorloks could thank players like Marissa Lewis, the 2014 SLIAC Women's Player of the Year, and Monica Behrle, the 2018 SLIAC Women's Player of the Year, for the success of the program during the decade.
There was some new blood as well with players from Greenville University and Webster University capturing several SLIAC Newcomer of the Year awards. Greenville's Tyler Blume (2019) and Nate Wieland (2015) took home the men's award while Lexi Baysinger (2013) and Emma Wieland (2018) won on the women's side. Webster University's Travis Blair (2013)and Juan Granizo (2014) also received the men's award with Behrle taking home the women's award in 2015.
The level of competition began evening out among the league schools thanks to strong coaches making up the ranks. Four different men's coaches took home the SLIAC Coach of the Year award to open up the decade meanwhile five different women's programs had a Coach of the Year winner in the decade. The nine different coaches to win a Coach of the Year award during the decade include Brett Brannon, Jeff Borengasser, Shannon Carney, Martha Davis-Goldstein, David Dyson, James Hantak, Rusty Jones, Casey Reynolds, and Mike Siener.
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