HICKORY, N.C. - Third year head men's and women's tennis coach
Sam Clarke has led his programs to a combined 11-0 start, the best in school history. His women sit at 6-0 while the men are 5-0. Thanks to this start and his program's previous two seasons, coach Clarke has now eclipsed the 50-win mark as the coach of Lenoir-Rhyne tennis.
"It's been a fun start that has been built off the back of a lot of hard work, discipline, and love of the game," said coach Clarke. "We have a phenomenal group that all came here to learn, grow, improve, and keep pushing this program to new heights. They are a true joy to work with. We have our sights set high this season; there is a lot of incredible tennis left to play, and we'll just keep stacking great days on top of each other in pursuit of excellence."
The Lenoir-Rhyne women are ranked No. 22 in the latest ITA rankings, their highest under coach Clarke.
Nellie Wahlberg recently took home the SAC Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week award after going 5-1 over the course of three singles and three doubles matches last week. Overall the women's tennis program is 26-5 in singles matches and 13-3 in doubles.
The men's tennis team isn't ranked far behind the women, sitting at No. 32 in this week's ITA rankings. The Bears'
Samuil Sivinov joined Wahlberg in earning Athlete of the Week honors last week, posting a 6-0 record. Lenoir-Rhyne has won their last three matches 7-0, 4-0, 4-0, and hold a singles record of 20-3 and doubles record of 9-2. The doubles pairing of
Vadym Rogynskyi and
Vitor Ferreira are ranked 29th in the country. While not going on their official record due to it's exhibition nature, the Bears nearly took down NCAA Division I Davidson College in early February, falling 4-3.
"Assistant coach Zainab, strength coach Myles, and athletic trainer Sarah have been incredible in supporting and pushing this program towards national success. I can't thank them enough for the incredible impact they are having on our tennis family."
The women will travel to #49 Erskine on Friday before both teams take a trip down to St. Augustine, Florida, next week to face off against national power Flagler.
