This weekend saw the culmination of the BUCS Tennis Team Finals at Gosling Tennis Centre in Hertfordshire with the University of Stirling and University of Bath coming out on top.
The ladies champions were the University of Bath, who defeated Loughborough University in the final by 4.5 to 1.5. Stephanie Cornish and Alex Walker led the team from the top of the order and with the score 3-1 after the singles, the title was clinched when they won their doubles.
World ranked Walker from the wining University of Bath team said: “I love playing team tennis, we have a strong team spirit and it’s great environment for competing.” You can view an interview with Walker in the video at the top of the page.
The overall men’s champions were the University of Stirling’s first team, who proved too strong for Loughborough University’s men’s first team, winning by 4.5 to 1.5.
Following hard-fought wins in the singles by Joe Gill and Nick Hatchett, Scott Whitbread kept the tie alive for Loughborough by defeating the BUCS Individual Champion and Stirling no.1 Nick Rosenzweig 6-4 in the third set. Team Captain Euan McGinn described the match as ‘tight’ going into the doubles but when Stirling won the second pair doubles, they were celebrating a clean sweep of men’s titles in both the Team and Individual Championships.
McGinn, the Head Coach of the University of Stirling’s winning team, said: “We have had a tremendous year winning four team titles already and this is the icing on the cake.”
The winning University of Stirling men's first team
Alistair Higham, the Tennis Foundation’s Higher Education Manager said: “It was great to watch such highly competitive matches. The British university performance programmes are developing as a strong option for serious tennis players and this was reflected in the high standard of play.”
Iain Bates, Chairs of the BUCS Tennis Advisory Group said: “Congratulations to the Universities of Stirling and Bath for winning the team championships. For the University of Stirling to have achieved a clean sweep of BUCS titles this year is a remarkable achievement.”
Tom Gee from BUCS thanked referee Peter Greatorex for his hard work and added: “Team tennis is different from the usual knockout competition and the high level of team support and team spirit was very much a feature of the weekend.”
The Trophy Finals were also played alongside the Championship Finals with newcomers Coventry University Men’s first team defeating Loughborough University men’s second team 4-0 before Loughborough University ladies' second team defeated University of Oxford’s first team by 4.5 to 1.5.
View further details on the BUCS website here.
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