Bucknell Women's Tennis Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Tennis, one of the original varsity women's programs at Bucknell, debuted during the 1973-74 academic year. The Bucknell women's tennis club had already been producing strong results, and that continued through the transition to varsity status. The Bison defeated Bloomsburg 6-1 in the first varsity dual in the fall of '73, and the squad went on to finish the inaugural season with a 6-2 record.

Nora Elze coached the team for the first six seasons. The Bison had a winning record in all six, and Elze's .680 winning percentage is still the best of any of Bucknell's women's tennis coaches. Remarkably, there have only been four of them. Hall-of-Famer Rose Ewan coached multiple sports during her 25-year tenure at Bucknell, and she achieved her greatest success in tennis, where her teams won 181 matches in 18 years. Ewan guided the Bison to Patriot League championships in 1992 and 1994, the first two conference titles in program history.

Rebecca Helt succeeded Ewan in 1997-98 and became the longest-tenured (22 years) and winningest (242) coach in program history. When Helt departed after a 14-7 campaign in 2018-19, Tammy Cecchini became just the fourth coach in team history. Her squad was off to a 6-3 start in 2019-20 before play was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many incredible players have helped shape the history of the Bison women's tennis program, and Cecchini will chat with a number of them over the course of the week. Special thanks to Geisinger for sponsoring the series, and we hope you enjoy this trip back Through the Decades.

1970s
Today we close out our fun look back through the history of the Bison women's tennis program with six alumni who graced the courts in the 1970s, back when the sport was just finding its footing as a varsity program. As mentioned above, the team still found succes in those early days, posting winning records in each of coach Nora Elze's six seasons from 1973-79. Today's panelists include Jody Campana '77, Louise King '78, Diana Burns '80, Donna Burns '80, Janis Huber '81 and Kathy Schubauer '81. Campana captained the 1976-77 team that finished with a 9-2 dual-match record. She went 15-7 in singles and 6-1 in doubles. King captained the 1977-78 squad that posted a 10-3 record. She went 32-7 in singles play for an .821 winning percentage that ranks third in team history. She also went 10-1 in doubles action and won the Bison Club Award at her Senior Awards Banquet. Diana and Donna Burns were co-captains in 1979-80 under first-year head coach Rose Ewan. Diana fashioned a 29-13 record in singles and 11-5 in doubles, while Donna was 25-20 in singles and 11-5 in doubles. Huber and Schubauer were co-captains during the 1980-81 campaign, where they led the team to an 11-7 record. Huber compiled a career record of 27-20 in singles and 15-6 in doubles, while Schubauer went 15-6 in doubles and also won 17 singles matches.

1980s
Six members of Rose Ewan's 1980s-era squads join us for today's discussion: Cindy Appel '83, Patty Koch '83, Wendi Hipkins '85, Michelle Miller '85, Kim Regester '85 and Laurie French '90. Appel captained the 1982-83 team that finished 13-5-1. She went 39-13 in doubles play, and her .750 winning percentage ranks third in team history. Koch served as captain of the 1981-82 team that finished 11-7, and her .838 winning percentage (62-12) in combined singles and doubles play ranks second all-time. Koch posted career records of 34-9 in singles and 28-3 in doubles. Hipkins captained the 1984-85 team and won 64.6 percent of her matches at Bucknell. She went 24-14 in singles and 28-13-2 in doubles. Miller won East Coast Conference singles (#6) and doubles (#3) titles in 1982. She tallied career records of 36-15 in singles and 37-13 in doubles, and her .723 career winning percentage in all matches ranks sixth in school history. Regester specialized in doubles, where she fashioned a 41-15-1 career record. Her .726 doubles winning percentage is sixth-best in team history, and she teamed with Jeanne Roberts to win the ECC title at No. 3 doubles in 1983. French captained the 1989-90 team, which went 9-6 in the final year of ECC play before the formation of the Patriot League. She won 18 singles matches and 22 doubles matches in her career.


1990s
Today we welcome back five alumnae from the 1990s, which by most accounts is considered the best stretch in program history. The Bison posted a 116-50 dual-match record in the decade, including a 64-9 record over a five-year span from 1990-95. Bucknell also debuted in the brand new Patriot League in 1990, and after a runner-up finish in the second-ever PL Championship in the fall of 1991, the Bison claimed titles in 1992 and 1994. Interestingly, both of those championships came on their home courts, but both were won under very different tournament formats. In 1992, the Patriot League was still using a flighted tournament, with points awarded based on players advancing in their respective brackets. Bucknell had finalists in five of the six singles flights and two of the three doubles flights, and the Bison dominated the bottom half of the singles tournament. Lauren Weihl, Sara Allen and Erika Anhood won at 4, 5 and 6, respectively, and Bucknell's 35 points was well ahead of runner-up Colgate's 21.5. In fact, the Bison were so dominant that they had actually clinched the championship before any of the finals matches began. Two years later, the Patriot League switched to a team tournament format that is still in use today. As the No. 1 seed, Bucknell received a first-round bye, then defeated Army 5-3 in the semifinals and Colgate 5-2 in the championship match to highlight a stellar 15-1 season. Seniors Julia Diaz and Kristina Lutter, two of the top players in team history, rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 victory at first doubles to clinch the championship. Diaz and Lutter are two of the guests on today's chat, along with Mary Ann Benack '92, Allen '96 and Kerry Callaghan '00. Benack won 35 singles matches in her career and earned the Bison Club Award at her Senior Awards Banquet. Diaz, a Christy Mathewson Award winner as a senior, posted a 34-11 career singles record despite a knee injury that cost her all of her junior season. She captured the Patriot League title at No. 1 doubles with Kymm Carlson in 1991, and Diaz was the No. 1 player on the 1992 championship team. Lutter rarely lost a match during her Bucknell career. She finished 50-8 in singles and 41-7 in doubles, and her .858 overall winning percentage remains the best in school history. Her 50 singles wins, 41 doubles wins, and 91 combined wins were all team records at the time, in the days before fall tournament schedules allowed players to boost win totals. Lutter, a Bison Club Award Winner, was a two-time All-Patriot League selection, a two-time Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and a two-time national CoSIDA Academic All-American. Allen posted a terrific career singles record of 45-12, and her .789 winning percentage is fifth-best in team history. She was a two-time All-Patriot League performer in singles, and she and Weihl received All-PL doubles honors in 1995. Callaghan was one of the team's top players in the latter part of the decade. She won 50 career matches, 24 in singles and 26 in doubles, and was a two-time All-Patriot Leaguer. She was honored in singles in 1997 and in doubles (with Kristin Ingles) in 2000, and that year she was also selected as an ITA Scholar-Athlete.

2000s
Today on "Through the Decades" we go back to the 2000s, a decade that saw the Bison produce five winning dual-match records, including a school-record 17 win season in 2004-05. In each of the last five seasons in the decade, Bucknell advanced to the Patriot League Tournament final before running into a powerful Army squad. The 2008 final went the distance, with the Bison falling by a narrow 4-3 margin. Today four former team captains from this era join us for a reflection on their days wearing the Orange & Blue: Tanya Sichko '05, Veronica Brown '06, Chelsea Mills '06 and Lauren Lucido '11. Sichko was a Second Team All-Patriot League selection following her senior season. He 86 career singles victories were a school record at the time, and that figure still ranks third all-time. Her 148 combined singles and doubles victories rank fifth in team history, and she won just under 68 percent of her matches at Bucknell. Brown was the Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 2003, when she also garnered Second Team All-Patriot League honors, and then she became a First Team honoree as a junior and senior. She graduated as the winningest player in school history with 161 combined victories, and that total now ranks third. Her 82 career doubles wins was also a team record at the time and is now one behind Lucido with 83. Mills won more than 71 percent of all of her matches at Bucknell. She was a Second Team All-Patriot League selection as a senior and was also a two-time ITA Scholar-Athlete. Today she ranks seventh in school history with 73 singles wins and eighth with 123 combined wins. Lucido was a two-year captain who remains the school record-holder in career doubles wins with 83. Her 87 singles victories and 170 combined victories were records at the time and now rank second behind Maria Cioffi. Lucido was a rare four-time All-Patriot League honoree, earning Second Team honors as a freshman and sophomore and First Team accolades as a junior and senior. That helped her earn a spot on the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team.

2010s
Today we start our series with the most recent decade of the 2010s. Many terrific players graced the Bucknell courts over the last 10 years, and we welcome back three of them for today's chat: Maria Cioffi '16, Lisa Jouravleva '18 and Paige Leavy '20. Cioffi is one of the top players in program history and was a rare four-time All-Patriot League performer. A native of nearby Williamsport, Cioffi was a Second Team All-Patriot League selection and the PL Rookie of the Year in 2013. She was then named to the All-Patriot League First Team in each of the next three seasons. She is Bucknell's all-time leader in combined wins (171) and singles wins (91), and her 80 doubles victories rank third all-time. Cioffi won better than 70 percent of her matches at Bucknell, and she was equally adept in the classroom. She was the 2014 Patriot League Women's Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and she was an ITA Scholar-Athlete as well. Jouravleva captained the team as a senior and was a two-time All-Patriot League honoree. Her 62 career singles wins rank ninth in program history, wile her 110 combined victories rank 12th. Leavy is also one of the all-time winningest Bison players. She ranks ninth in team annals with 120 combined wins, seventh with 64 doubles wins, and 13th with 56 singles wins.

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Bucknell Women's Tennis Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

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