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Late-bloomer nears net victory record
Editor's note: Emily Loewen completed her career in March 2007 with the school record for victories (147). Read more.
The women’s tennis program can thank a high school gym teacher in Kansas for kick-starting the career of one of the most successful players in Ram history.
Emily Loewen was a freshman basketball player at Lawrence Free State High School in 1999 when the school’s tennis coach/gym teacher asked her to join the tennis squad. Loewen had never played competitive tennis, but eventually she qualified for the state tournament as a junior and again as a senior, when she won the doubles championship. Despite no professional instruction and with not yet eight years in the sport, Loewen will enter the 2007 spring season seven wins shy of Cornell’s all-time victory record set by Marie Schutte ’06. Loewen is 137-67 overall (67-31 in singles, 70-36 in doubles). She is a three-time All-Iowa Conference selection in singles and once in doubles. Last fall she and sophomore Pavla Brachova captured Cornell’s first IIAC doubles championship.
“In doubles you need strategy, chemistry and timing. It’s also fun to share big moments on the court with a friend,” Loewen says.
Loewen was heavily recruited by women’s tennis coach Fred Burke ’70 and she thought being six hours from home “was about the right distance.”
“This was a very easy decision to make,” she said. “I enjoyed visiting the campus, and the people here are so nice. I also liked One-Course-At-A-Time.”
Her sister, Joanna, is a freshman member of the Cornell tennis team. Among the six Loewen children, three have attended Cornell, including Mark Loewen ’04, and a younger sister (another tennis standout) “thinks she’s coming here, too,” Loewen says.
Loewen, a three-time Academic All-Iowa Conference selection, is majoring in economics and business with a focus in sports management.
“There have been so many good players go through the Cornell tennis program,” she notes. “Because I picked up the sport late, I’m still very passionate about tennis. Some players get burned out, but I still love being on the court.”
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