Waring and Phillips Nab Two All-Conference Honors

By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net

TOWSON, Md. – The three-year duo of senior Megan Phillips (Jefferson Hill, Pa./Thomas Jefferson) and junior Heather Waring (San Antonio, Tx./John Jay) earned First-Team All-Landmark Conference Doubles honors for the second consecutive year, the league announced this morning. Both Phillips and Waring were also named second-team all-conference for singles play.

"The main thing I look at, there were other teams who Megan and Heather played last year who were the same this year that they won very close matches against last year, or even lost, and they beat easily this year," said third-year head coach Jason Cohen. "There were a couple of matches that they won last year in tiebreakers who were the same team this year and they beat 8-3 or 8-4. That shows the improvement and hard work that they have put in the play the exact same team two years in a row and beat them a lot more handedly this year than they did the year before."

Together the pair won 16 matches this year finishing with an overall record of 16-8. They played all 17 dual matches this year at the No. 1 doubles position where they went 11-6 including a 5-1 Landmark regular season record. The pair earned the one doubles victory in Juniata's final match of the season against The University of Scranton during the league semifinals. This is the third all-conference selection for the tandem and second consecutive first-team honor after garnering second-team honors in 2012.

"That [improvement] something that comes with playing together three years in a row. That's not normally something that happens and it's something that makes my life a lot easier," added Cohen. "I always knew they were playing number one doubles and I could worry about the other spots. They were definitely a spot of the team that we could count on every match to if not win they were going to compete and give us a chance."

In her final season as an Eagle, Phillips put together the best year of her career winning 16 matches, besting her previous career record of 11 set as a junior. A back-to-back second-team selection, Phillips finished with an 11-5 dual match record earning four wins in league matches. She went 6-1 at the No. 3 position and 5-3 at No. 2 singles this season.

"Megan has done a great job of working extremely hard not only at tennis, but as her fitness as well. She has become a much different player from when I first came here and got her as a sophomore. I think that shows in her results over the last two years. The amount of wins she has compiled in her junior and senior years is far and away a lot more than in the freshman and sophomore years and it's because she's a player that wants to work hard and wants to get better. Once I was able to point her in the right direction she took off from there."

Waring finished her junior season 8-7 at the No. 1 singles position. She complied a 3-3 league record and won her final two singles match including against Scranton in the conference tournament. Waring won three consecutive matches in the middle of the season and had eight matches this season where she won both No. 1 singles and doubles.

"I know Heather was excited about this year and hoping she could contribute more in singles and she certainly did. That's great to see," said Cohen. "Playing number one is not easy. You are going to have tough completion in every match that you play. She really stepped up this year and beat some players who had beaten her previously. That will give her a lot of confidence going into her senior year."

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