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Sunday, June 17, 2001

Tennis has always been a moving experience for Dan Silverstein, whose next stop is Morgantown, W.Va.

Silverstein, 32, will be the coach of the women's team at West Virginia University. He is the second coach in the program's history, replacing long-time coach Martha Thorn, who retired.

Tennis has taken Silverstein from Allderdice High School, to Slippery Rock University, to North Carolina-Asheville, to Southeastern Louisiana University and now to West Virginia University.

"We can build on what she's done with the program," said Silverstein, who grew up in Squirrel Hill and graduated from Allderdice. "I think I can bring a little bit more discipline and a little more energy to the program. Maybe because of my age I'll relate a little better to the players. I will be a change for them."

He added after a pause, "This is another step up for me and a chance to come closer to home. This is an opportunity I've been looking for since I started coaching. West Virginia University is a place I can call home for a while."

Silverstein has been the coach of the men's and women's teams at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, La., the past two years. He was named the 2000 Louisiana state Coach of the Year, guiding the team to a 12-13 record after going 0-25 in 1999. He also took the men's team to its first Southland Conference semifinals in 2000.

In two years at Southeastern, Silverstein's men's team had a 15-21 record; the women's team was 25-23.

"I'm an on-court coach," he said. "I get very excited and the players can feed off my energy. I have the players being aggressive and playing smart at the same time."

He inherits a WVU program that finished sixth in the Big East Conference last season and has never been considered one of the elite teams in the league. West Virginia plays its home matches on the hardcourt-surface courts at the Mountaineer Tennis Center on campus. The league season runs from January through May, and West Virginia competes in a number of tournaments in the fall.

"WVU is rich in tradition in so many other sports," said Silverstein, whose family lives in Squirrel Hill. "This is an opportunity for me to take women's tennis to a higher level."

The top women's teams in the Big East are Miami, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.

"There's no reason why West Virginia can't be right up there with them," he said. "WVU has a program that should be in the top 50 to top 70 each year. We should be able to attract some of the nation's best tennis players."

Prior to coaching at Southeastern Louisiana, Silverstein was the coach for the men's and women's programs at North Carolina-Asheville from 1996-99. The men improved from 0-19 in 1997 to 9-11 in 1998 and reached the semifinals of the Big South tournament for the first time in 1999.

"I think I know what it takes to build a program," he said. "That's what I've done wherever I've been."

Silverstein began his coaching career at Slippery Rock, his alma mater, as an assistant from 1996-97. He played four years at Slippery Rock, reaching the singles final twice and the doubles semifinals four times in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships. Silverstein helped the Rock reach the NCAA Division II tournament in 1994 and 1995.

"I've always wanted to coach tennis," he said. "I've been to a lot of places, met a lot of people and seen a lot of different things because of tennis."

The campus courts

Stanford's Laura Granville and Georgia's Matias Boeker have been named the National Players of the Year by Tennis Magazine and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).

Granville, who also received the honor in 2000, is the third player to win the award twice. Florida's Lisa Raymond did it in 1992-93 and Trinity's Gretchen Rush (formerly of Mt. Lebanon) was named in 1983-84.

A sophomore from Chicago, Granville has won consecutive NCAA Division I singles championships and led Stanford to a 30-0 record and the national team title. She was 46-1 in singles this year, 93-3 the past two years and set a Division I record by winning 58 consecutive matches.

Boeker, a sophomore from Buenos Aires, became the third player since 1977 to win the NCAA "Triple Crown" -- the NCAA singles, doubles and team titles. He was 44-8 in singles.

Boeker and his teammate, Travis Parrott, are the Nationals Doubles Team of the Year. They were 35-10 this season and won the NCAA doubles championship.

Florida's Whitney Laiho and Jessica Lehnhoff are the National Women's Doubles Team of the Year after going 34-1 and capturing the NCAA title.