Coming in to the 2016 IAAM A Conference Tennis Championships, the Bryn Mawr tennis team knew they had a target on their backs. They had finished the regular season unbeaten at 9-0, and were vying for their third conference championship in four years. Their roster included Cameron Corse ’17 and Lily Burchell ’17, arguably the two best singles players in the league. But tennis is still a team sport, and it would take more than that to win.

Co-Head Coach Matilde Taborda-Almaguer, a physical education teacher at Bryn Mawr, felt confident about the team’s chances. Taborda-Almaguer has coached the team since 2005, alongside Kate Brendler, a Middle School science teacher. This year was something special. “This is a year where we’ve had the most depth of any year that I’ve been coaching,” Taborda-Almaguer said.
 
However, she also knew that rivals McDonogh and Severn were both very close behind, standing at 8-1 and 7-2 respectively. During the regular season, the Mawrtians had had close wins over both teams.

After a successful start to the championship, with Corse capturing her fourth-consecutive singles championship title and Burchell securing the No. 2 singles spot, McDonogh tied up the score by winning the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches. It came down to the No. 1 doubles, which pitted Bryn Mawr’s Jasmine Abass ’18 and Lindsay Thompson ’20 against the defending champions from McDonogh.
Banner photo courtesy of Nelson Coffin.
The level of the players [this year] was very impressive. I think that pushed everyone on the lineup and made for a really, really strong team.

- Co-Head Coach Matilde Taborda-Almaguer
The match got off to a rough start, with Abass and Thompson losing the first set 6-2. But they battled back to take the next set by the same score. With Bryn Mawr up 5-4 in the third set, Abass sealed the deal with two aces to take the set 6-4. And with that, the Mawrtians claimed their third championship title in four years, as well as a league-best eight championship titles overall.
 
Taborda-Almaguer says that the high standards the girls set for themselves really made a difference. “The level of the players [this year] was very impressive,” she said. “I think that pushed everyone on the lineup and made for a really, really strong team.”
 
The team is graduating four seniors this year  Corse, Burchell, Anum Haque and Vaidehi Kaushal. Corse, who put an exclamation mark on her senior season by not only winning a fourth-consecutive No. 1 singles title but also by winning every single game (an “incredibly tough thing to do,” Taborda-Almaguer points out), will go on to play for the University of Notre Dame. Burchell, who only lost one game throughout the course of the season, will continue her career at Boston University.
 
Nevertheless, Taborda-Almaguer is very optimistic about the team’s prospects – especially given that the JV team is riding a streak of four undefeated seasons, signaling a great pool of upcoming talent. Taborda-Almaguer is quick to note that the JV deserves a great deal of recognition for what they have accomplished. “It’s truly a testament to the team that they pull it together every single time,” Taborda-Almaguer says. “The last time they lost a match was in October 2012 against McDonogh.”
 
She also notes, however, that she and Brendler are conscious of the pressure this puts on the girls, and work to moderate that. “They don’t want to be the ones to drop the ball,” she said. “We try not to let that get to them too much – to only focus on what they can do at the time. We listen to the kids, and we work with them at different levels. We both try to really be there for everybody and have everybody’s back. That’s how they know they can depend on us. It has really worked well.”
Located in Baltimore, Maryland, The Bryn Mawr School is a private all-girls pre-kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school with a coed preschool for ages 2 months through 5 years. Bryn Mawr provides students with exceptional educational opportunities on a beautiful 26-acre campus within the city limits. Inquisitive girls, excellent teaching, strong student-teacher relationships and a clear mission sustain our vibrant school community where girls always come first.