Sustained Excellence

12/12/2025

The significance of Collegiate’s 5-4 victory over Sidwell Friends in girls varsity tennis this past September 19 was just beginning to sink in when Allyson Brand, the Cougars’ head coach, posed a question to her team.

How many of you believed we could win? she asked. Only a couple of players raised their hands. Their response was understandable considering that the Quakers, nationally ranked and triumphant in 55 consecutive matches, had defeated the Cougars each year since 2019.

Brand then asked a follow-up: After doubles, how many of you believed we could win?

The majority of her squad responded affirmatively.

That day, the three doubles matches preceded the six singles, the Cougars trailed 2-1, and Sidwell Friends’ top two players are 4-star recruits. Why, then, were the Cougars so confident, especially playing on the Quakers’ home courts in Washington, D.C.?

They knew that their No. 3 doubles team of Ella Williams and Ellie Purcell had won their match 8-0. They knew they’d won all three of their exhibition (non-scoring) doubles matches. They knew that they had the depth and conditioning to compete well. They knew, too, that they had the secret sauce — fearlessness, resilience, resolve, and intentionality — to complement their talent, even against a juggernaut like Sidwell Friends.

The Quakers went on to win No. 1 and 2 singles. Purcell and Caroline Lee won at Nos. 3 and 4 singles, respectively, to close the Cougars’ deficit to 4-3. Then, Williams captured No. 5 singles 8-4 to even the match, and Jaya Agarwal won 8-1 at No. 6 to secure the team victory.

“That was a big win,” Brand said. “For us to beat them was huge.”

The Cougars’ season only improved from that momentous day. Ranked No. 1 in the VISAA throughout the season, they rolled through their dual match competition unscathed (18-0 including a 6-3 victory over No. 2 Potomac), then captured their fifth consecutive League of Independent Schools and VISAA championships.

They won the league tournament with 60 points, 10 ahead of runner-up Trinity Episcopal. At states, they defeated St. Stephen’s-St. Agnes 5-0 in the quarterfinals, Trinity Episcopal 5-1 in the semis, and Potomac 5-1 in the finals.

Their combined record in singles and doubles was 117-16. Rita Taylor (a Senior captain and five-year starter), Kishori Vohra, Lee, and Purcell earned both All-State and All-LIS honors.

One day recently, Brand, who was cited as the LIS and VISAA Coach of the Year, spoke of the Cougars’ journey that culminated with yet another championship season.

The expectations for another great season were high. How did you and your staff help your players manage them?

That’s the challenge and what makes coaching fun. Everyone came to tryouts this year ready to play. It’s a competitive group, so our goal as coaches was bringing their potential out. We had a lot of the same players, but we had a little bit of a different lineup at some positions. Every year is a new year, a new team, which makes it exciting.

What areas did they improve their skills during the off-season?

They improved on things that would take them to the next level like working the full court and playing aggressively. Or not just waiting for the ball to come to you, but creating and becoming better at angle shots, finesse shots, and volleys: not just basic volleys but the variety of the volleys like touch volleys and higher volleys. They put more tools in their toolbelt.

You’ve always worked with your girls to set goals. What goals, other than winning, did you set?

Yes, winning is a goal, but as coaches, we only talk about what’s in front of us, what can we control, what we can we improve. The rest, you like to think, can take care of itself. Honestly, it’s just finding ways to come out every day to practice and improve, whether it’s on the court or in sports performance.

Is winning championships any less special since you’ve won so many?

Each one is special because each year the team is unique. At the end, you always have Seniors graduating and new girls coming on. It’s so great and rewarding when the girls can go out there and compete at their potential.

Five consecutive championships place you in rarefied air. What do you do for an encore?

Every year, every match, what can we control? What can we not control? We can’t control how our opponents play. We can control our attitude, our footwork, our shot selection, our shot tolerance. If we can focus on what we can control, the results fall in place.

~Weldon Bradshaw

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