The Josselyn House tennis courts were bare without their nets, and the sun was already beginning its early descent into the autumnal night. But with a couple of rolls of duct tape from My Market to construct the outline of the nets and an enthusiastic attitude, Vassar College Club Tennis (VCCT) was still able to make practice possible. Even if just for a few hours, VCCT relished in the remaining light of the day, playing casual games with other students who all share the same love and passion for the sport of tennis.
“The main aspect of VCCT is just how amazingly fun this whole thing is,” Anders Hansen ’26, a member of the VCCT Executive Board, greeted as he entered the court and saw the impromptu nets. “The fact that we came out here and put duct tape on the poles, like come on—it’s dedication. What other club is like that? We don’t let anything stop us.”
VCCT recently established itself as a pre-org a few weeks ago after Executive Board members Nathan Hart ’26, Madeleine Nicks ’26, Leela Khatri ’26, Jonas Davis ’24 and Hansen played informally last semester. Though intramural tennis exists as an option for tennis enthusiasts, VCCT acknowledged that this was just not enough tennis for them.
Intramural tennis only offers doubles tennis with no singles option. Players must be paired with a partner, and if they did not have one, they would be paired with a partner at random. It is one set to eight, roughly equivalent to a 30-minute event once a week. If a pair forfeits the match, then that is the match for the week, leaving a fairly good possibility that no tennis will be played for some. Additionally, the matches are held at inconvenient times ranging from Mondays 8 to 10 p.m. or select Sundays from 6 to 8 p.m. For those who have been playing most of their lives, they simply want more consistent play. Several VCCT members enjoy intramural tennis as a “side hustle,” but their desire to play more tennis was a common sentiment.
“We all have been playing tennis for six plus years—a lot of our lives. To go here where there are no options besides 40 minutes every week for a month, we wanted to play more. And you lose it quickly when you don’t play,” commented Hart. “We heard there was no club tennis or anything here for casual play, and we were horrified by it. When you have been playing consistently for around 13 years and then have to stop—it’s sad.”
And thus, VCCT was formed to foster this community of students who wanted to come out for more than 30-minutes a week, meet fellow tennis players and have fun in a relaxed, carefree environment.
Khatri added, “If you miss playing tennis—and something that intramural doesn’t really offer—we are consistent. We really like playing. I think that is a big difference, too.”
Practices are led by the group, and, depending on the amount of people and their preference, traditional singles or doubles matches can be played or students can bring in different games they know and share it with the group. For example, Champion of the Court, played in either singles or doubles, is where players will challenge the “champion” on the other side of the court. If the challenger wins, they replace the “champion”; if not, a new challenger comes in. Another game played is Dingles, where four players on the court will play a singles point by rallying diagonally cross-court. When one of the players misses the ball and their rally ends, they yell out, “Dingles!” and the remaining ball in play turns into a doubles point with all four players involved.
“We believe we are really filling a gap at the school in terms of a tennis community,” Nicks expressed. “We have met so many people that play casually through different ways, and it is great to be able to give an option for people to just be hitting throughout the week.”
Furthermore, one does not need to be familiar with these games or be experienced with tennis at all to join VCCT. Newcomers are welcome to come to practices where VCCT can teach them how to play and eventually, with a larger budget from VSA, provide rackets as well. VCCT hopes to purchase more equipment and play matches against other schools in the future. They aspire to be more than just a hitting club but rather a club team that travels to other club tennis teams in the area to play official matches. With the community they have built through an extensive email list and word of mouth, VCCT feels confident that their club can only prosper from here.
“I feel like the culture of tennis players is usually intense, high-strung men, and we have none of that going on here,” Nicks importantly noted. “It’s important to me as someone who has trained in that kind of environment, as did several members of the Executive Board, that we have something that feels really open and fun and silly. We stay silly.”
To put it succinctly: VCCT is low commitment and pressure, but high fun and support. Upcoming practices will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday Dec. 2 and Dec. 9 with no sign ups required. On the courts, with music playing from a speaker and cheering from the players as the duct tape nets held their own, it was clear that everyone truly was having a blast. As the sky darkened and the ball became more difficult to make out, Nicks declared, “Last point!” to the collective response of “I can still see!” And as a ball shot her way, narrowly missing her head, Nicks smiled as she remarked, “If they had lights on this court, we would be here all night.”