Choruses of “Mine!“ can be heard all across the Bryn Mawr College tennis courts each Wednesday afternoon. This year, college faculty can join the team for an open hit with doubles games or Queen/King of the Court.

It’s been fun seeing and getting to know professors from different departments in a unique setting, one that most students (and faculty and staff) are not used to. This is due in part to our coach Doanh, who came up with the idea and is the force behind this now weekly event.

This week, I had fun with my doubles partner, first year Hannah Sherman, playing doubles with chemistry professor Susan White and physics professor Mark Matlin. In between games (we had to keep it serious on court, this was practice for us!) there was discussion about the new Battle of the Sexes tennis movie about Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, California and Iowa (my and Hannah’s home states), more remote locations of different colleges (like Professor White’s alma mater Dartmouth or Kenyon, which both Hannah and I briefly considered attending), and more.

Other professors included sociology professor David Karen (known to the team as DK) who was our volunteer assistant coach for the past two years.

I will never forget when the tennis team went to his home (the picture below shows the team en route there) my sophomore year for a dinner he cooked. It was so homey, and is one of my best tennis memories.

You won’t find professors and faculty playing tennis with college teams at most schools, even other small liberal arts colleges. This is one example of the intimacy and tight-knit community that is fostered here at Bryn Mawr. How many students can say they’ve drop-shotted a professor, or that they themselves have been drop-shotted by a professor?

Fun was had by all, and I hope to see you out on the courts.