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Kathy Sell
- Title:
- Head Coach
Kathy Sell enters her fifth year as the head coach of women’s tennis at Princeton after leading the Tigers to a winning Ivy League record in each of her four seasons.
And the news gets even better for Princeton tennis. Sell’s second recruiting class, which features current sophomores Blakely Ashley, Sarah Huah and Melissa Saiontz, was ranked as the second-best recruiting class in Division I behind only Notre Dame by one publication. The 2008 class of Hilary Bartlett, Lauren McHale and Rachel Saiontz, was ranked No. 1 in the nation by the Tennis Recruiting Network.
“Kathy not only has considerable experience as a successful player but she also has a great understanding of athletics as part of the overall educational mission that defines Princeton,” says Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walters. “We think she is an excellent fit for the job.”
Sell, a native of nearby Moorestown, became Princeton’s coach in 2004 after the retirement of legendary coach Louise Gengler, the longest-tenured female coach in school history.
She spent both the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons at Oregon, where she was an assistant coach. Oregon earned an NCAA tournament bid in 2004 and finished with a 17-9 overall record.
A 2001 graduate of Duke, Sell shared the University’s Athlete of the Year award in 2001 with men’s basketball All-America Shane Battier. She was the first female recipient of the award at Duke. She earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Duke. Her highest NCAA singles ranking was No. 7 her senior year, when she was named an All-America.
While at Duke, Sell was a member of the Duke Student Athlete Advisory Committee, of which she served as president her senior year. She also formed the SAGE Mentor Program, where each incoming freshman athlete was assigned a senior athlete from a different sport to assist in the transition to the university.
Sell, whose sister Jenny Garrity is the head coach at UNC Wilmington and whose brother Mike is a national coach for the USTA, completed her master of science degree in cultural anthropology at Oregon in summer 2008.
And the news gets even better for Princeton tennis. Sell’s second recruiting class, which features current sophomores Blakely Ashley, Sarah Huah and Melissa Saiontz, was ranked as the second-best recruiting class in Division I behind only Notre Dame by one publication. The 2008 class of Hilary Bartlett, Lauren McHale and Rachel Saiontz, was ranked No. 1 in the nation by the Tennis Recruiting Network.
“Kathy not only has considerable experience as a successful player but she also has a great understanding of athletics as part of the overall educational mission that defines Princeton,” says Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walters. “We think she is an excellent fit for the job.”
Sell, a native of nearby Moorestown, became Princeton’s coach in 2004 after the retirement of legendary coach Louise Gengler, the longest-tenured female coach in school history.
She spent both the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons at Oregon, where she was an assistant coach. Oregon earned an NCAA tournament bid in 2004 and finished with a 17-9 overall record.
A 2001 graduate of Duke, Sell shared the University’s Athlete of the Year award in 2001 with men’s basketball All-America Shane Battier. She was the first female recipient of the award at Duke. She earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Duke. Her highest NCAA singles ranking was No. 7 her senior year, when she was named an All-America.
While at Duke, Sell was a member of the Duke Student Athlete Advisory Committee, of which she served as president her senior year. She also formed the SAGE Mentor Program, where each incoming freshman athlete was assigned a senior athlete from a different sport to assist in the transition to the university.
Sell, whose sister Jenny Garrity is the head coach at UNC Wilmington and whose brother Mike is a national coach for the USTA, completed her master of science degree in cultural anthropology at Oregon in summer 2008.
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