Sweet Home Santa Clara

Women’s tennis serves up double the trouble.

Giannina Ong ’18
27 Mar 2018
Maddie Pothoff ’20 just looks like a pro. Not just with her impossibly angled winners or demoralizing drop shots that barely cross the net. It’s the way she handles herself. Between points, she never slumps. Her racket is affixed in the perfect, upright position. Regardless of situation, she maintains a composed, reassuring smile. Arizona native Pothoff came to SCU as a transfer from University of Alabama. She finished last year as one-half of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s No. 2 doubles team and claimed the title of NCAA doubles finalist. This year, during the fall individual play, she and doubles partner Madison Clarke ’19, another Arizona native, landed the fifth seed at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, earning a national ranking of 19 at one point. What brought her here? “The idea of receiving a world-class education while playing the sport I love really appealed to me,” Pothoff says. “I couldn’t pass it up.”
post-image Maddie Pothoff ’20 has served as Santa Clara’s No. 1 since her transfer from the University of Alabama. / Photo by Don Jedlovec

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