Wisconsin women’s head tennis coach Patti Henderson has been named this year’s Big Ten Coach of the Year. In her eighth season at UW, she guided the Badgers to a second-place Big Ten finish after an eighth-place showing in 2000-01. Henderson, who earned her first conference Coach of the Year honor in 1996, led the Badgers to a 16-8 overall record this season and the winningest mark since the 1997-98 campaign. The 9-4 conference record is Wisconsin’s best in three years.
Two student-athletes were also honored with selection to the all-Big Ten team. Senior Vanessa Rauh (Trier, Germany) and junior Linde Mues (Hofstrade, Germany) are both first-time recipients of all-Big Ten status.
Rauh played No. 1 singles for the Badgers this season, after playing at the one position just four times as a junior. Fifteen of her matches came against ranked opponents, and she finished with a 15-18 record. She is also an Athletic Board Scholar and a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
Mues finished the season with a 21-11 record overall and a dual match mark of 15-7. In conference play, she went 9-2 against her league peers. This was Mues’ first year of playing No. 2 singles as a Badger. She also pairs with teammate Lara Vojnov as the team’s top doubles tandem.
Wisconsin will find out later this week if it qualifies for the NCAA tournament, which begins play the weekend of May 10-12 with first- and second-round matches.
—Compiled from staff reports
