Alison Swain ’01 begins her fifth season at Williams coming off of a record-tying fourth straight NCAA Championship in her first four years as a collegiate coach.

In the 2007-2008 season Swain led her team to a 21-3 overall record, the Little Three Championship, and the 2008 NCAA National Championship title. Under Swain, the team repeated as National Champions in 2009 posting an overall record of 21-2 on the year.  Again, in 2010 Swain’s team made history by 3-peating as NCAA National Champions boasting an overall record of 23-3 and taking home the Little Three Title as well. 

In 2011, Swain’s Ephs went 22-3 and made history winning both the NESCAC Conference crown for the first time since 2004 and the National team Championship for the fourth consecutive year and the sixth time in the program’s history.  Notably, the Ephs swept all three doubles points in each of their 5 NCAA tournament matches, posting a perfect 15-0 in doubles play, en route to the crown.

Alison Swain embraces Nancy Worley '13 after Worley battled back from down a set to beat Amherst in 2011 NCAA title match

By winning four National Championships in her first four years as coach, Swain has amassed a sparkling 20-0 record at the NCAA tournament. 

Swain was co-captain of the first Williams team to win the National Championship in 2001.  She also become the second coach in any division to win the National Championship as both a player (2001) and a coach (2008 & 2009 & 2010 & 2011) and is believed to be the first collegiate coach to lead her team to four NCAA titles in her first four years as a head coach.

Williams College women’s tennis now boasts six National Championships in the last 11 years, which is the most of any DIII tennis program.  Williams was the first Division III women’s tennis program to win back-to-back championships in 2001 & 2002.

In her first four years, eight players under Swain have earned All-America honors (five of whom have repeated over multiple years) and ten players have been awarded All-NESCAC honors including the 2010 NESCAC Senior Sportswoman of the Year, while the entire team earned the ITA All-Academic Team Award all four years. Two players under Swain have been selected as the ITA Northeast Player to Watch (2008, 2010), and Grace Baljon ’10 was awarded the ITA National Senior Player of the Year honor. Two of her players have captured the ITA Regional Singles Tournament crown and one doubles team has taken home the ITA Regional Doubles title.  Finally, Swain has coached two Ephs to the NCAA National Singles Tournament Runner-Up position (2008, 2010), which is a program record. 

Swain has been honored as NESCAC Coach of the Year two years running in 2009 and 2010.  In 2010, Swain was also selected as the ITA Northeast Regional Coach of the Year. She was also featured in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” in June 2010.

Alison Swain graduated from Williams College with High Honors in 2001 and 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 leadership 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 and high school humanities in Atlanta, GA and Telluride, CO.  Swain earned her Masters Degree in Education in 2006 from the University of Washington.

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.

2011: Ephs win 4th straight NCAA title and record 6th overall