Women's tennis team and Feldman bring Oxford another trophy

In May the 2011 Oxford women’s tennis team won the NJCAA Division III championship, held in Tucson, Arizona.

Championship team members include Ngan Do 11OX 13C, Ayanna Groves 11OX 13C, Adriti Gulati 12OX 14C, Vyjoo Lakshmipathy 11OX 13C, Hima Nannapaneni 11OX 13C, and Etasha Srinivas 12OX 14C. Groves finished the competition ranked number two nationally in NJCAA Division III.

For Brandon Feldman, coach of men’s and women’s tennis and Oxford’s athletic director, this was a first—and a fourth. The 2011 championship is the first for the Oxford women’s team; the Oxford men’s tennis teams won NJCAA championships in 2006, 2007, and 2009. Given that Oxford has been involved in intercollegiate athletic competition for only about thirteen years, following a long hiatus that began in the 1980s, these four championships are especially impressive.

Credit for this success lies with Feldman, who joined Oxford in 2004 from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, where he also coached both men’s and women’s tennis. A native of New York, he spent his high school career in South Florida and was a top-ranked player. Feldman went on to attend Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he also played tennis and served as team co-captain. After a stint as a tennis pro, he earned a master’s in exercise physiology from the University of Miami before entering the collegiate coaching field.

Feldman was named NJCAA Coach of the Year following each of the four Oxford championship seasons, and in 2007 he was selected as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Coach of the Year.

With three members of the women’s tennis team returning this year and a strong lineup of players for the men’s team, there is a good chance Feldman will need to look for more shelf space in the Oxford trophy case.