New W. Tennis coach Dowd is looking to mesh with team

After being promoted from assistant coach to the head coaching job following the death of Cissie Leary, Dowd is trying to mix his teaching style with Leary's. Michael Dowd, who completed his second year as an assistant coach to both the Penn men's and women's tennis teams, was named the head women's coach on Monday, June 16. Dowd served as the interim coach for the spring semester after the death of former head coach Cissie Leary. "I love to coach ? the opportunity was there to be the head coach of the women's team," Dowd said. "I try to use the skills that Cissie had. It's going to take me a while to do as well as Cissie has. My goal is to be a good a communicator with the team, the staff and the alumni." The announcement of Dowd's hiring came as a pleasant surprise to some members of the team. They had been concerned that gender equity issues might prevent Dowd, whom they considered the strongest candidate, from receiving the job. "He was the underdog although he was our coach for the semester," said Quakers senior co-captain Lara Afanassiev. "He definitely should have been the favorite to get the job." With his experience as an assistant and a semester of head coaching behind him, Dowd has the advantage of knowing the players already. He stated he has tried to bring some of Leary's style into his own coaching philosophy, but feels that he is still developing a style of his own. "He knows the team and knows us well. I think he incorporates Cissie's philosophy in his coaching style," said Andi Grossman, the team's other senior co-captain. And though there are differences between Leary's and Dowd's styles, the players see them as complimentary. "He took some of Cissie's style and integrated it with his own," said Afanassiev. "He's definitely much more structured, but at the same time he still is laid back like Cissie." Dowd's style worked well in the spring, the first time he received official head coaching experience. As Leary's health grew worse, she had gradually given him greater control of the team. Under Dowd, the Red and Blue finished 11-5 overall, 4-3 in Ivy League action. He inherits a team that is young, but also balanced with plenty of potential. "There definitely is more pressure now that I'm the coach, and I look forward to the challenge," Dowd said. "It's a very young team. It helped us and hurt us this past year. I think the team is really hungry and wants to do well." Of the top players for Penn, Anastasia Pozdniakova, the Ivy League's Rookie of the Year, will return for a second season, Afanassiev and Grossman are seniors, and Karen Ridley, Julia Feldman and Brooke Herman will be juniors. "They know what to expect, and I think they'll be ready come fall," Dowd said. "They know if they're not ready to play in the fall, they probably won't be playing much in the spring." Some of Dowd's qualities that have the players most excited are his ability to motivate, his intensity, his desire to push the team to a higher level and his foresight. "Part of Cissie's goal was -- because this team is so good -- to up the intensity of the schedule to make sure these girls are challenged, and that's what we're going to do," Dowd said. "You need to be competing against higher level teams in order to beat those type of teams," Grossman added. Dowd himself has done well throughout his tennis career when competing against strong competition. He graduated from George Washington University in 1994 after a stellar career for the Colonials, a team which he captained during his final two years. He holds the school record for most career wins with 79. He has continued to play -- in ATP Satellite Tournaments -- and is currently ranked fifth in the men's Mid-Atlantic Region Tennis rankings.

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