Women's tennis got it's start at Stout in 1976

MENOMONIE (October 20, 2020) - This weekend, the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tennis Championship was originally scheduled to be held on the University of Wisconsin campus. But like so many things these past six months, the event was canceled for the fall as the WIAC canceled all fall competition, and then the WIAC moved the tennis season to the spring of 2021, with the championship tournament to be held in late April or early May.

The WIAC is marking 50 years of sponsoring women's championships. The WIAC began as the Wisconsin Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WWIAC) in the 1971-72 school year. 

UW-Stout women's tennis got it's start in 1976, and Blue Devil Hall of Fame member Carol Sanders got the ball rolling.

Not finding a women's varsity tennis team on campus when she arrived in 1976, Carol Sanders helped put the pieces together to assemble a team. The Sept. 23, 1976, issue of The Stoutonia announced the team's arrival. "Eleven excited women reported to Coach (Bob) Smith's office two weeks ago to form a long awaited tennis team for women. The team is enthused and dedicated; the girls practice every day with teammates or members of the men's team."

Seeking the assistance of men's tennis coach Bob Smith, Smith told Sanders, along with Sue Scarseth, Mary Guberud, and Deb Weyers, if they could find enough interested players to make up a team, he would coach them. The rest, as they say, is history. Smith used bits and pieces of his men's tennis and swm team budgets to form a bare-bones women's tennis budget.

Smith coached the team in its first year, followed by Donna Roe for two years. Smith returned to the helm in Sanders' senior year. Sanders, a native of Libertyville, Ill, was the team's No. 1 singles player her sophomore, junior and senior years. The Blue Devils first match was a 5-0 loss to UW-Eau Claire, Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1976. The Blue Devils finished their inaugural season with a 4-3 overall record. 

During her senior year, Sanders was named the team's most valuable player. Inducted into the UW-Stout Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003, her Hall of Fame bio reads "with a well-established bond, six members of the 1978 team -- four from the original 1976 team -- still get together annually."

Team members, according to The Stoutonia, included: Sanders (Fr, Libertyville, Ill), Scarseth (Fr, Eau Claire), Guberud (So, Edina, Minn), Weyers (Jr, Kaukauna), Jeanne Huska (Jr, Hibbing, Minn), Andrea Klave (So, Minneapolis, Minn), Ruth Pederson (So, Luck), Robin Hietala (Fr, South Milwaukee), Barb Baryenbruch (Fr, Manitowoc), Debbie Hanson (Fr, Rochester, Minn) and Virginia Traynor (Fr, Eau Claire).