Melanie Chin

The College of Wooster recorded its highest placement at the North Coast Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Championships in eight seasons, as the Fighting Scots lived up to their seeding and finished sixth among the highly-competitive field at Oberlin, Ohio, this weekend.

Four of the top-12 ranked teams in the most recent NCAA Div. III Central Region coaches' poll hail from the NCAC, and Wooster faced one of them in Friday's quarterfinals as Kenyon College, 12th in the region, shutout the Scots 5-0 to send them into the consolation semifinals.

On Saturday, Wooster excelled in the favorite's role, cruising past seventh-seeded Wittenberg University by a 5-1 count. The Scots prevailed in two of the three doubles matches, with Catherine Christian and Melanie Chin teaming for an 8-5 victory at the top of the lineup and Rachel Dietz and Rachel Appleton rolling past their foes 8-2.

Christian and Chin were double winners, as they were dominant at No. 1 and No. 3 singles, respectively, yielding just one game apiece via set scores of 6-0, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-0. At No. 5 singles, Kimberly Carter put the finishing touches on the team win in emphatic fashion (6-0, 6-0).

In Sunday's fifth-place match, Allegheny College emerged a 5-0 victor, despite several hard-fought matches by Wooster, most notably Rose Chiumento and Lauren Gilliss extending their opponents at No. 2 doubles to 8-6. The sixth-place finish was the Scots' best showing since also placing sixth in 2005.

Now under the direction of Amy Behrman, who completed her first spring as head coach, and with Christian aiming to build on her strong freshman season at the top of the lineup (9-8 record at No. 1 singles) plus most of the rest of the team expected to return, Wooster is optimistic that it will continue to ascend the NCAC standings.