The club tennis team swept its matches against Bowdoin, University of Vermont (UVM), and UMass Amherst to win the six-team “Ephvitational” hosted at the College this past weekend. This strong showcase highlights the program’s competitive growth over the last two seasons.
Club tennis has existed at the College for years, but the team has recently expanded, according to its current president, Josh Rubel ’26. “It wasn’t a super-organized club when I got here,” he said. “There was a team, [but] it was kind of small. We had sporadic practices.”
As a rising sophomore, Rubel took it upon himself to build up the program. “I started organizing as many practices as I could in Fall [2023],” he said. “The group kind of just grew from there.”
Currently, the club tennis program is co-ed, encompasses a wide range of abilities, and is open to anybody who wants to join, Rubel said. During the spring and fall, the team holds three practices per week with 20 to 25 consistent participants.
Among the group of students who attend open practices, there is a competitive sub-section of players with significant tennis backgrounds. “I played tennis my whole life,” Lucy Schafer ’28 said. “I really wanted to continue with the sport I played most of my life.”
The more experienced players, such as Rubel and Schafer, travel for tournaments around the region. “It’s super fun to go around [to] other schools,” said Ansel Ang-Olson ’27, another tournament player. “It’s not super intense or super hard-core, but it is still a certain level of competitiveness, so you still get that drive, spirit, and energy.”
“For the travel team, we will just play matches against each other, try and get in as much match play as possible throughout the week,” Rubel added.
Ang-Olson also noted that this year’s group has been boosted by the current class of first-years. “We had a bunch of freshmen and some other new people join that were really, really good,” he said. “We’ve been able to compete at a higher level against some of these other schools.”
This weekend’s tournament was the team’s fourth of the season. According to Rubel, he and co-president Jackson Liu ’25 organized the event with the other five schools in attendance — UVM, Middlebury, UMass Amherst, Bowdoin, and Dartmouth.
Rubel explained that the scoring for club tennis tournaments is unique. Two teams face off in five matches, which are a mix of singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Each match is only one set, and the number of games won by each team in each match is added up to determine an overall winner.
To kick off the tournament, the Ephs found success against Bowdoin, winning four of the five matches. After moving to the indoor courts onto the hockey rink due to rain, the team continued its winning streak, taking three of the five matches against UMass Amherst.
Defeating UMass Amherst was especially significant for the team, according to Ang-Olson. “They are generally a good team, and we see them at a lot of these tournaments,” he said.
After the win against UMass Amherst, the Ephs finished strong against UVM, clinching four of the five matches.
The Ephs’ impressive showing secured the tournament win. “Not only did we win all three, but we had the largest number of games won,” Ang-Olson said. The Ephs won 80 games in their three matches, with only UMass coming close, with 74.
The energy at Saturday’s tournament was infectious, according to Schafer. “All the teams seemed to bring lots of people, more than necessary,” she said. “There were a lot of players around, a lot of energy. It’s just fun to see other college students.”
The Ephs also relished playing at home. “Everyone’s friends came out and watched,” Rubel said.
Looking ahead, Schafer is excited to get more women involved with the program. “I really want to recruit more women for next year, whether that’s in an incoming class or people who play tennis, but aren’t on the team right now,” she said.
Rubel is proud of how the club tennis program has developed so far. “I’m really happy with how the club has grown this year,” he said. “I feel like we’re a big presence within each other’s lives.”
The club has become a close-knit group. “It’s nice to have a community of people who you can bond with over a strong shared interest and something we all really, really love — which is playing tennis,” Ang-Olson said.
