Alison Swain ’01 begins her third season coaching the women’s tennis team following two banner years as head of the Williams tennis program.  In the 2007-2008 season, Swain led her team to a 21-3 overall record, the Little Three Championship, and the 2008 NCAA Championship. Under Swain, the team repeated as NCAA Champions in 2009 posting an overall record of 21-2 on the year.  By winning two national championships in her first two years as coach, Swain has amassed a sparkling 10-0 record at the NCAA tournament.  She also become the second coach in any division to win the NCAA Championship as both a player (2001) and a coach (2008 & 2009) and is believed to be the first coach to lead her alma mater to the NCAA title in her first two years as a head coach in college.

Williams College women’s tennis now boasts four national championships both of which were captured in back-to-back years.  Williams was the first Division III women’s tennis program to win back-to-back championships in 2001 & 2002.

In her first two years, four players under Swain have earned All-America honors and seven players have been awarded All-NESCAC honors, while the entire team earned the ITA All-Academic Team Award in both 2008 and 2009.  Swain was also honored as NESCAC Co-Coach of the Year for the 2008-09 season.

Alison Swain graduated from Williams College with High Honors in 2001 and she co-captained the women's tennis team. She was a member of the first Williams women’s tennis team to win the NCAA team championship title (2001). During her tennis career, she was a four-year letter winner for the Ephs, earned All-NESCAC honors, was named a Scholar-Athlete All-American, and the recipient of the Torrence M. Hunt tennis dedication award, the Most Improved Player Award, and the Simon Sportsmanship Award.

Since 2001, Swain has pursued a career in athletics and education.  She taught middle school humanities at Woodward Academy in College Park, Georgia, where she also served as the head women’s tennis coach.  She led her team to a second place finish in the state AAAA tournament in 2004, their highest finish to that point in school history. 

In 2005 Swain earned a certificate in Education for Environment and Community from IslandWood, A School in the Woods where she spent a year as a residential field instructor.  She continued on to the University of Washington to complete her Masters in Education.  Most recently, Swain taught upper school humanities at Telluride Mountain School.
 
Swain continued to pursue tennis after Williams College and became the number one ranked mother/daughter doubles team in 2003 when she and her mother, Sue Swain, won both the National Mother/Daughter Indoor and the National Mother/Daughter Grass Court doubles tournaments.

In addition to coaching the women’s tennis team, Swain also serves as the assistant men’s and women’s squash coach in the winter.