After claiming her first singles All-America last season, senior Venise Chan (Washington) bids adieu to college tennis by adding another one in both singles and doubles at the 2011 NCAA D1 Women's Championship. In doing so, she becomes Hong Kong's first three-time All-American in U.S. collegiate history.

The only other players from Hong Kong who have gone on to become an All-American in Division I tennis were Patricia Hy in women's singles (UCLA, 1984), in addition to John Hui (Pepperdine, 1999) and Brian Hung (Michigan, 2007) in men's doubles.

"It[college] passed by super-fast," said Venise Chan from Seattle, as she prepares for an assortment of graduation ceremonies. "It has been a roller coaster of a ride and I'm glad to have reached my goal of being an All American in singles and doubles."

"I would really like to thank my teammates and our coaching staff for all the great support. I'll definitely miss the team aspect of tennis," she added.

Aside from reaching a career-high ranking of No. 9 in singles and No. 6 in doubles, she is the only player in the conference named to the All-Pac-10 First Team and Pac-10 All-Academic First Team in each of the past two seasons.

Before she was to compete in this year's NCAAs, her final event as a collegian, she had already pocketed a second All-America in singles by virtue of being seeded for the championship. She reached the last sixteen, nonetheless, but fell to the No. 1 seed and eventual winner for the second year running, as she went down against Jana Juricova (Berkeley) in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.

Twelve months ago, she lost to No. 1-ranked Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech) at the same stage of the tournament. Both Falconi and Juricova ended their season as the ITA Player of the Year Award recipient.

Before arriving in the States, Juricova was a Fed Cup starter for the Slovak Republic and was ranked as high as WTA No. 253 in singles.

The former Marymount Secondary School student did, however, manage to add a doubles All-America to her tally by collaborating with teammate Denise Dy to reach the quarterfinals. The win that clinched it was in the round of sixteen when they saved two match points against 5th-ranked Bianca Eichkorn and Anna Bartenstein (Miami) before prevailing in three sets, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.

In fact, it was a winner off Venise's racquet on both occasions, first a backhand crosscourt volley and the second a low trajectory attempted pass that the opponents could not handle albeit commanding great forecourt positions.

Venise Chan, who was on a full tennis scholarship all four years, concluded her Husky career with the second-most singles wins in UW history. Her 101 victories is bettered only by former NCAA No. 1 Kristina Kraszewski, whose 111 victories set in 2001 remain the benchmark.

2007: A Watershed Year

Venise Chan arrived at the University of Washington in September 2007 after having peaked at No. 24 on the ITF World Junior Circuit (No. 2 in Asia) and with a pair of US$10,000 women's pro circuit titles to her name.

UW was ranked as high as No. 4 as recently as February 2004, but the school won a combined eight matches over the previous two years and failed to make it to the NCAA Championships.

Venise immediately went to the No. 1 singles spot as a freshman, and led Washington back to the NCAA Championships all four years of her career. At the start of the 2007-08 regular season, Washington was ranked No. 70. On February 9, 2011, it returned to the top-15 for the first time in almost 6 years.

Venise Chan the rookie actually began her first regular season with 9 straight victories before running into her first defeat at the hands of Hilary Barte (Stanford), courtesy of a third set super-tiebreak, 6-1, 6-7, [10-6].

What's more, she pulled off a couple of stunning wins to confirm her arrival.

First, against 2006 NCAA singles champion and No. 7-ranked Suzie Babos (Berkeley), nicknamed the "Hungarian Hurricane", Venise won the first 11 games before her opponent finally got on the board. The 6-0, 6-1 loss was, and still is, the heaviest defeat in Babos' career. Then, against USC away from home, Venise beat two-time Honda Award finalist and the No. 2-ranked player earlier that season, Lindsey Nelson (USC), in a third-set super-tiebreak.

Chan puts UW tennis back on map (seattlepi.com, 19 Mar 2008)

The highpoint, however, came against No. 12-ranked Arizona State. With the overall score tied at 3-3, she saved two match points to beat 28th-ranked Nadia Abdala, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(5), to clinch a 4-3 upset win that propelled UW into the NCAA Championships.

The following season, Venise went 28-7 overall in singles and 21-4 in dual play. Not only did she return to the NCAAs for the second year running, she was named ITA Player to Watch (Northwest Region) and became the first player this century to sweep the number ones from Berkeley, Stanford, USC, and UCLA during the regular season.

The only player to have come anywhere close to sweeping these four traditional Pac-10 powerhouses at the one spot was Englishwoman Claire Carter (Washington), who in 2004 managed to beat Amber Liu (Stanford), Catherine Lynch (Berkeley), and Jackie Carleton (UCLA) in succession before going down against Luana Magnani (USC) in a third set tiebreak, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6.

Venise completes amazing four-timer with wins against UCLA, USC (6 Apr 2009)

The highlight, however, also came in the NCAA Team Championship when she came back from 2-5 down in the third set against opposing No. 1 Maria Sanchez (USC) to win 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2). That improbable comeback clinched a 4-3 win and propelled the Huskies to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2003.

USC was the No. 7 seed in the tournament and had only lost twice all year. The loss snapped a 13-match win streak for the Trojans (21-3), who had won the Pac-10 with an 8-0 mark and were the first team other than Stanford to win the conference in 21 years.

In her junior year, Venise Chan registered a 23-11 overall win-loss record in singles and reached a career-high No. 11 in the rankings. Moreover, she reached the quarterfinals of the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships before becoming the first UW player to make the women's singles semifinals of the ITA/Riviera Women's All-American Championships.

She was ominously close to exiting the NCAAs in the opening round but somehow overturned an inconceivable, 6-1, 5-1, deficit to beat 28th-ranked Marta Lesniak (SMU), 1-6, 7-5, 6-0, en route to the last sixteen.

Venise finished the year ranked 15th and finally netted her first All-America in singles. She also reached the Pac-10 doubles championship and was a recipient of the Arthur Ashe Junior Scholar Athlete Award.

In her senior year, a lingering shoulder injury hampered her play and saw her exit early from the first two majors of the collegiate season. Her ranking subsequently nosedived from a career-high No. 9 to No. 55 literally overnight.

After going 22-1 in the regular season, however, Venise managed to claw her way back up to the top-16 just in time to be seeded once again for the NCAAs.

When Washington cemented a 4-3 win against Sacramento State back in April it was the team's final home game this season, which also meant Venise's last time out as a Husky at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. While Coach Jill Hultquist and Venise Chan embraced post-match on home court for the last time, fond memories, rather than sobbing farewells, were prevalent.

"I'm happy because I started with Jill my freshman year in my first match, and I also finished my last match with her," said Venise. "All this time, throughout the four years I'm here, she's been guiding me along and motivating me."

"Venise was one of the best players to come out of the University of Washington," said Head Coach Jill Hultquist. "I remember thinking that when she came she was going to break a lot of records. She is now second on the all-time win list with 101 singles victories."

"I was very lucky to get Venise to come to the University as our team was struggling and she was the anchor that turned our program around. She competed with all the best players in the country and had wins over many of them."

"She is going to be missed," reflected Head Coach Jill Hultquist.

When asked if she is retiring from competitive tennis anytime soon, Venise Chan's response was uncannily swift: "Never [laughs out loud]... I'm always competitive!"

All-Pac-10 Selection

Venise Chan has made the All-Pac-10 Team four years in a row. She was selected to the First Team in her sophomore and junior years, while earning Second Team honours as a freshman and senior.

The All-Pac-10 Team is based on a vote of the league's head coaches, with the top six vote getters earning First Team honors and the next six earning Second Team recognition. Any other players receiving at least one vote are named honorable mention.

Making the All-Pac-10 Team is truly a measure of elite status in the sport, as the conference dominates the national singles and doubles rankings. All twelve of the First and Second Team honorees are ranked in the Top-25 nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, including the top-four players at the end of the regular season.

Results
NCAA D1 Championships
Stanford University, Palo Alto
May 25-30, 2011

WOMEN'S SINGLES

First Round
(9-16)Venise Chan (Washington) d. Monica Arguello (Furman) 6-3 6-0

Second Round
(9-16)Venise Chan (Washington) d. Shannon Mathews (Notre Dame) 6-3 3-6 7-6(4)

Round of 16
(1)Jana Juricova (Berkeley) d. (9-16)Venise Chan (Washington) 6-3 6-2


WOMEN'S DOUBLES

First Round
Venise Chan/Denise Dy (Washington) d. Sanaa Bhambri/Sandhya Nagaraj (NC State) 6-4 6-3

Round of 16
Venise Chan/Denise Dy (Washington) d. (5-8)Anna Bartenstein/Bianca Eichkorn (Miami) 5-7 6-2 7-5

Quarterfinals
(3)Kaitlyn Christian/Maria Sanchez (USC) d. Venise Chan/Denise Dy (Washington) 6-1 6-4