2020 LYCOMING COLLEGE SPRING MAGAZINE

annah Summerson ’20 started to play tennis before she was born. Her mother, Theresa, picked up the sport while she was pregnant with Hannah, the third of five children from Duboistown, located just across the river from Williamsport and Lycoming College. “She is a stay-at-home mom, so I think she just wanted to get out of the house once a week,” Hannah said. “My dad, being competitive, started to play so that they could do something together.” So Hannah grew up in a tennis family, around courts all the time with her three sisters, Grace, Sarah, and Lily, and her brother, Franklin. By the time Hannah went to high school, Theresa was the head coach of South Williamsport’s tennis team, where she has helped the Mountaineers to three district titles in the past nine years. “She coached me all through high school,” Hannah said. “She was at all my matches and could give me advice. I know sometimes I wish I had advice from other places, but it was nice to have my mom there.” When it came time for college, Hannah thought about moving away — Millersville and Bloomsburg had recruited her — but it was Lycoming College that provided an environment that made her feel immediately comfortable. She attended clinics as a child that head tennis coach LeRoy Baer had staffed. John Dorner, Lycoming’s men’s tennis coach for six years, and Jason Mifsud ’13, the 2013 MAC Commonwealth Player of the Year, both worked at the Central PA Tennis Center, where Hannah regularly played and worked. She joined a team that hadn’t had a winning season since 2002, was inserted into the top of the lineup, and the impact was immediate. Always H Playing Hannah Summerson ’20 has played more tennis and set more records than any other Lycoming student By Joe Guistina 26 LYCOMING COLLEGE 2020 SPRING MAGAZINE