The
College
of New Jersey’s women’s tennis team clinched its 22nd
consecutive New Jersey Athletic Conference Women’s Tennis
championship with a 9-0 victory over previously unbeaten Richard
Stockton on October 2. With the victory, the Lions finished the 2004
fall season with a perfect 6-0 mark, having won all six NJAC matches
by a final score of 9-0. TCNJ remains unbeaten all-time in NJAC
women’s tennis play with 106 straight conference victories dating
back to the fall of 1982.
TCNJ captured the 2004 title by posting six conference victories in
a span of 17 days. The Lions opened their season with a 9-0 win over
previously unbeaten Ramapo on September 15. They next topped
conference rivals Kean and William Paterson by identical 9-0 scores
on the same day of September 19. TCNJ then downed Rutgers-Newark and
Montclair
State by 9-0 marks on back-to-back days of September 21 and
September 22. The Lions’ 9-0 victory over Richard Stockton on
October 2 clinched their 22nd straight NJAC crown.
Remarkably, TCNJ did not drop a single individual or doubles match
during their NJAC campaign, posting 36-0 and 18-0 records
respectively in individual conference singles and doubles play. In
addition, the Lions did not drop a set during the season, capturing
each of their individual singles matches in straight sets while also
winning each pro set of their 18 individual doubles matches.
Since women’s tennis was introduced as a conference sport in the
fall of 1982, the Lions have never lost a league match – a streak of
106 straight victories over the course of 22 seasons. The streak has
spanned 23 years and three different head coaches at the helm of the
TCNJ program. The streak started in 1982 with Brenda Campbell as the
Lions’ head coach, a role she handled until her retirement as
women’s tennis coach in the summer of 1995. Under
Campbell, the Lions
compiled a 68-0 record in NJAC play. From 1995 through the 2000
season, Tricia Udicious was the head coach and guided the Lions to
14-0 record. Under current head coach, Scott Dicheck, the Lions are
now 24-0 in league action.
The record for most conference wins in a sport is held by
Kalamazoo College’s
(MI) men’s tennis team, which from 1963 to 2002 won 241 consecutive
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) matches and 66
conference championships during that time frame. The current active
women’s tennis streak belongs to Washington & Lee University’s
program, which is now 134-0 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference
(ODAC) with 14 conference titles dating back to the 1991 season. |