ITA Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame announces 2014 inductees
WILLIAMSBURG, VA. (June 3) - Katrina Adams, Stacy Margolin (Potter), Cecelia Martinez, Bob Meyers, Jeff Moore and Lindsay Morse (Bennett) have been announced as the Class of 2014 to be inducted into the ITA Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.
The ITA Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony will be held Saturday, November 15, 2014 at the Mason School of Business on the College of William and Mary campus.
A Chicago native, Katrina Adams joined a Chicago Park District program at age 6, and completed in her first tennis tournament at seven years old. She was the Illinois High School Association singles champion in 1983 and 1984 before committing to playing college tennis at Northwestern. During her collegiate career, she was an ITA All-American in 1986 and 1987 in both singles and doubles. She captured the NCAA doubles championship with Diane Donnelly in 1987. The duo didn't lose a set at the NCAA tournament, finishing the season with a 24-match win streak, a 36-2 record and a two-year mark of 72-5.
Adams left Northwestern in January 1988 to turn pro. During her rookie year, she made it to the Round of 16 in singles at Wimbledon (her best Grand Slam singles result) before losing to Chris Evert in three sets. In 1989 she was ranked eighth in the world in doubles, and during her 12-year career, she won 20 doubles titles. Adams has been a television commentator for the Tennis Channel since 2003, and is also an executive director of the Harlem Junior Tennis League. She began serving a two-year term as First Vice President of the USTA in January 2013 and will become Chairman of the Board, CEO and President of the USTA in January 2015.
Stacy Margolin (Potter) was the No. 1 singles player during her four years at Beverly Hills High School after a successful junior career in which she won more than 100 tournaments. During her stellar freshman year at the University of Southern California, she won the 1977 National Collegiate Singles Championship title. The next year, playing at No. 1 singles, Potter helped her team capture the 1978 AIAW Division I Team Championships.
An All-American from 1977-79, Potter turned pro in 1979 and competed until 1987. During her pro career she competed in 25 Grand Slam championships including 11 US Opens, eight Wimbledon and six French Opens. She reached the Round of 16 in singles and mixed doubles (with John McEnroe) in 1978. She reached a career high singles ranking of No. 18. After retiring from the tour, she received a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from UCLA and a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University.
Cecelia Martinez was a member of the champion Northern California team in the US Junior Intersectional Team competition. In 1966, she was the Intercollegiate Champion for San Francisco State University. During her professional career, she was ranked as high as No. 15 in singles, and was ranked in the Top 30 from 1968-1974. Her career high ranking in doubles was No. 4. She reached the singles quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1970, beating Virginia Wade along the way. In her final year on the tour in 1976, she won six Open titles.
Martinez is regarded as a pioneer for the current women's professional tour. At the 1970 US Open, Martinez and her doubles partner Esme Emanuel planted themselves beneath the main scoreboard at Forest Hills and handed out a questionnaire asking tennis fans whether they would support a women's only tour and collected nearly 300 responses. One third of male respondents and half of the females said they liked watching women's tennis just as much as the men's game. Crucially, half of the men, and two-thirds of the women, said they would pay to attend a women-only tournament.
Bob Meyers inaugurated the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville women's tennis program in 1979 and coached the team until 1989. Under his leadership, the teams won four straight NCAA Division II Championships plus three singles titles and two doubles titles. During that winning span, Meyers coached 32 players to All-American status. He was NCAA Division II Coach of the Year for women's tennis in 1983 and earned the same honor for men's tennis in 1988. He was inducted into the SIUE Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.
In addition to his coaching successes, Meyers served on the NCAA Men's and Women's National Tennis Committee and was co-chairman of the ITCA/NCAA Men's National Rankings as well as the chair of the men's NCAA Midwest Regional Committee. He has a Master's Degree in Physical Education from SIUE in 1971 and received a Master's Degree (also from SIUE) in Counselor Education in 1972.
Born in Cambridge, MA, Jeff Moore coached the University of Texas women's tennis team for 23 seasons, from 1982-2005. It was at his alma mater, University of Redlands, where Moore began his coaching career as the head tennis and basketball coach. After a two-year stint with the Bulldogs, Moore headed to the University of Colorado, where he led the Buffaloes to national prominence for four seasons prior to taking over the Texas program in 1982.
Moore led his Longhorn squad to the NCAA Championships every year of his coaching career in Texas. His teams captured NCAA Championship titles in 1993 and 1995 and had two other runner-up finishes and three other Final Four showings. During his time in Texas, he led the Longhorns to 10 top-five NCAA finishes. Nineteen of his Longhorn student-athletes have earned ITA All-America honors a total of 44 times. His career record is 594-208 (.741), with a 506-153 (.768) record in his 23 years at Texas. Moore later received his Master's Degree in education from Texas in 1990.
Born in Pasadena, CA, Lindsay Morse (Bennett) started playing tennis at age 8 at her local club and played her first tennis tournament at age 11. She began her collegiate tennis career at UC Irvine in 1973. She won the 1974 Southern California Intercollegiate title in both singles and doubles while helping her team capture the team title. During her collegiate career, she represented the US in the BP Cup, which was a college competition held between the US and England.
She was runner-up in women's singles and doubles at the women's National Collegiate Championships held in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1974. Also that year, she won the National Amateur Clay Court Doubles Championships in Memphis and was runner up in singles. In 1977, she won the singles title at the Women's National Collegiate Championship in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 1977 she was awarded the Student Athlete of the Year award at UC Irvine, becoming the first female to win the award. An All-American in 1977-1978, Bennett spent a year playing professional tennis and reached a career high singles ranking on No. 39 in 1980. Since retiring, she has taught tennis lessons at various clubs and plays on various USTA teams.
About the ITA Women's Collegiate Hall of Fame The ITA Women's Collegiate Hall of Fame was established in 1995 and honors outstanding collegiate players and coaches, as well as players who attended college and later had a significant impact on women's tennis. The Hall of Fame is located at the College of William and Mary's McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center, named for the late Mark McCormack, founder of sports marketing giant International Management Group, and his wife, former tennis pro Betsy Nagelsen. The official site of the ITA Women's Collegiate Hall of Fame is http://itahalloffame.org/
About the ITA
As the governing body of collegiate tennis, the ITA promotes both the athletic and academic achievements of the collegiate tennis community. The ITA, which is comprised of nearly 1,700 men's and women's varsity coaches representing over 1,200 institutions, administers numerous regional and national championships and the Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings for over 20,000 college varsity student-athletes at the NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior College levels. The ITA also has a comprehensive awards program for players and coaches to honor excellence in academics, leadership and sportsmanship. The official ITA web site is www.itatennis.com.
