This was a historic season for the Pratt Community College Women's tennis program. For the first time since the program's reinstatement back in 2022, the women made an appearance at the National Tournament. The past couple of years helped build the program into one that could compete at the highest level. This year's team is paving the way for years and years of future successes.
The main highlight of the tournament was the performances of Freshmen, Ebonie Russell and Sandra Rodriguez Dominguez.
Sandra played #1 singles and #2 doubles at the tournament. She dominated her first-round matchup, winning 6-0, 6-1 against Anne Oshana of Elgin Community College, before falling to the #3 ranked player in the country, "Candy" Wei of Tyler Junior College. In Doubles, Sandra also found success in her first-round matchup before falling to the #6 seed in a 3-set thriller. Sandra and her partner, Barbara Mattar are both Freshmen and are expected to be a major part of the team next year.
Ebonie played #3 singles and #1 doubles at the tournament. She was the Beaver who made the deepest run into the tournament. She defeated Rosemary Pena of Weatherford College in the first round 6-3, 6-0. In the second round, she bested Isona Arnaus 6-3, 7-6 in a match that is sure to live in both her and her coaches' memories for a long time. She was finally beaten in the Quarterfinals by the #1 overall seed from Hillsborough Community College, Aisulu Zholbolat. In Doubles, the #1 team had similar success to the #2 team. The #6 seeded Weatherford College team was able to end Pratt's tournament run. Ilse Smaalders, the team's #2 singles player and Ebonie's Doubles partner is a freshman and expected to play for the Beavers next year as well.
The strong core of players returning for the 2025-26 school year has the PCC coaching staff very excited about the program. This is by far the best class of sophomores that the team has enjoyed since it's reinstatement. The team is expecting to make some noise at the tournament in the spring of 2026.