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The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

The top 16 teams in Guilford history: 1981 women’s tennis #14

The number 14 team in Guilford College history proved to be a difficult choice. But after sorting out individual achievements, as well as overall teams standings, this week’s recognition goes to the women’s 1981 tennis team.Like I said, this was a tough decision looking at the rich history of this institution’s early women’s tennis teams. From the early to mid 1980s, those teams put up some fantastic season numbers. I narrowed my results down to two years that just so happened to fall consecutively.

The deciding factor came when I looked at the overall team results of the ’81 team versus the phenomenal individual achievements of the ’82 team. That team was led by the sensational performance of Tarja Koho ’82, who was a tour de force on the court going an outstanding 31-0 in singles play.

As impressive as Koho was, the limelight has to go to the 1981 team. The accolades they compiled collectively are astounding. Shirley Dunn ’81 led the team that year going 31-5 in singles play, tying Koho for most wins in a single season.

She also holds the record for most single season wins, going 54-14 and producing an extremely impressive .861 winning percentage.

Dunn also teamed up in doubles play with Sue Ireton ’81. The two went 29-9, with a .719 winning percentage, and came in fourth on the school’s all-time single season doubles record.

The Quakers would need more than Dunn to make this season truly great, however. Teammate Leesa Shapiro ’81 followed closely behind Dunn with a 25-9 record.

This was fifth for single season singles wins. Rounding out the tenth spot in the same category, teammate Tammy Strickland ’81 went 23-11 to give the 1981 team three players in the schools top 10 in singles match wins.

Great players are made by great coaches, and the 1981 team was fortunate to have that in coach Gayle Currie. Currie, in her fourth year, led the team to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) championship in Oakland Park, Kan., where the team finished first, sharing the honor with Grand Canyon University.

For this accomplishment, Currie was also awarded the co-National Coach of the Year honors. She would take the Quakers back to the championship again in 1982 with Koho, but would fall just short of having back-to-back titles. The team finished as the runner-up that year.

This year’s women’s tennis team will hope to surpass last year’s 7-7 record, returning four letter winners. The team hits the court Oct. 1-3 as they compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament in Sewanee, Tenn.

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  • K

    Ken BradyJun 29, 2017 at 2:25 am

    Sue Ireton taught me tennis when I was a child, on public courts in the mid/late 70’s in South Jersey.
    A summer program of free lessons for the kids in town.
    Sue was a very nice person, a great teacher and an amazing talent. A fierce, fierce competitor.
    Lucky to have had her
    as a role model.

    Reply