by Greg Chandler

The Hope College women's tennis team completed another dominating run through Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association competition Saturday afternoon, blanking Kalamazoo College 5-0 at the Vande Poel-Heeringa Stadium Courts to win a 10th consecutive MIAA tournament championship.

The Flying Dutch, now 18-7 on the season, swept all three doubles flights, then got straight-set singles victories from their two seniors to clinch the tournament title and the MIAA's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament.

The 49-team NCAA field will be announced on Monday, May 9, on ncaa.com by noon 

"It's just fantastic," said Sydney Jackson, one of the two seniors. "It was great to have both the seniors, the only seniors, get to clinch [the title]. It was really exciting."

Photo by Lauren Byrne

Jackson, from Fort Wayne, Indiana [Carroll], defeated Kalamazoo's Caroline Norton 6-2, 6-1 at first singles. Then, fellow senior Saydee Johns of Holland, Michigan [Holland] closed out the match by blanking the Hornets' Ella Knight, 6-0, 6-0 at fourth singles.

"It's really sweet that the seniors could lock it down," Johns said as she cradled the tournament champion trophy. "Each one of the girls truly works their butts off all season. This is just a testament to our hard work, and it feels awesome."

First-year head coach Austin Hunt raved about his seniors after the match.

"They've been incredible in terms of helping me create this team, throughout the whole year," Hunt said.

Hunt is the fourth different head coach the Flying Dutch have made on their run of tournament titles, joining current assistant coach Nate Price (2010-12, 2017), Adam Ford (2013-16) and Bob Cawood (2018-21). He didn't need to say much to his team to get them ready for the match.

"One of the first things I told them was that they didn't necessarily need me to spout strategy. They didn't need me necessarily to continually tell them I believe in them, because I've told them that all year," Hunt said.

"I told them you gotta go out, and at the end of the day, make sure you wake up tomorrow with no regrets at all on how you played today."

Two of the three doubles matches were closely-fought. At second doubles, Johns and junior Taylor Truman of Hudsonville, Michigan [Hudsonville] battled back from an early 4-0 deficit to defeat Kalamazoo's Sophie Zhuang and Meghan Killmaster, 8-6. Then at third doubles, junior Delanie Riebschleger of Rockford, Michigan [Rockford] and sophomore Annika Weeber, also of Rockford, Michigan (Grand Rapids Christian), won a tiebreaker over Knight and Maddie Hurley, 8-7 (3).

Meanwhile, Jackson, who repeated as MIAA most valuable player this season, teamed up with freshman Sullivan Patel of Birmingham, Michigan [Wylie E. Groves] at first doubles to defeat Norton and Renee Torres, 8-3.