The Summer Northwestern
In just her third season as Northwestern’s women’s tennis coach, Claire Pollard has exhibited that she can vastly improve a program without wasting much time.
And NU fans aren’t the only ones taking note.
Pollard was named the Midwest Region coach of the year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association not long after the completion of her third year at NU. In her short time in Evanston, Pollard has overseen three Big Ten titles, including last season’s 10-0 conference mark.
Pollard has taken the Wildcats to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament in each of the past two years, and her team entered the 2001 season as the host of a regional and the No. 7-ranked team in the country.
Her success this year cannot be solely contributed to returning talent, either. After the 2000 season, she lost her best player, Katherine Nasser, to graduation. Jennifer Lutgert, another consistent starter in Pollard’s 2000 lineup, graduated and joined her this past year as an assistant coach.
Even with the losses, the Cats looked better than ever in 2001, and Pollard seems to be creating a trend of improvement every single year. NU has gotten significantly better under Pollard, finishing her first year ranked 24th, climbing into the teens in her sophomore coaching campaign and finishing 2001 at No. 9. The top-10 finish was the highest in school history.
“The jumps have come a little quicker than I imagined,” Pollard said. “This is like a dream come true.”
NU was the top-rated cold-weather team in the country this year as well – only teams from the South and the Pacific-10 Conference ranked higher at season’s end.
Still, as important as it is for Pollard and the program to be recognized with postseason accolades, the coach is fully aware of the steps still necessary to vie for a national championship. NU got bounced this year by Southern California, a team that entered the tournament seeded three spots below the Cats but left it a spot ahead.
The Cats have found increasingly unworthy competition within the Big Ten as they have reached the upper echelons of collegiate tennis, and need to find a way to beat the best teams from around the country when it comes to crunch time.
Still, as the honor indicates, it’s awfully difficult to be disappointed with the team’s overall performance since Pollard arrived. She sports a 67-15 record over her three seasons, and with young talent that knows how to win, it won’t be too surprising if the Cats continue to be as dominant as they have been.
The award certainly won’t hurt Pollard’s quest to bring in more top talent from all over the world. Pollard, who is originally from Great Britain, has travelled to Europe to recruit current Cats.
“Definitely the next stage for us is if we could attract a real stud who could come in and play No. 1 right away,” Pollard said.
The coach said an upgrade in talent could easily propel the Cats upward. And NU’s new indoor tennis center, scheduled to open Fall Quarter, won’t hurt that effort.
Although Pollard has not directed a miracle season in which the Cats suddenly storm to the top of the NCAA heap, she has shown the ability to improve a good team and then make it even better. The team’s second consecutive Sweet 16 loss doesn’t affect that trend, either.
For Pollard, the Cats are exactly where she hoped they’d be.
“Last year we were happy to be (in the Sweet 16),” she said following the loss to USC. “This year we were right in there with a team that was equal to us.
“We’re not done yet.”
