As Quinnipiac women’s tennis enters the 2025-26 season, it celebrates its 50th season.

Bet you didn’t know that one.

Honestly, no one knew that one. Not even head coach Paula Miller.

“I just found out about this yesterday,” head coach Paula Miller said in regard to the team’s milestone. “We are in the works of planning something. Hopefully over alumni weekend we can kind of incorporate that.”

Despite hitting such a milestone for a collegiate program, women’s tennis has not any recognition for it.

No social media posts, no campus recognition, no special banners or logos, nothing.

On the flip side, Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey is fully embracing its pride of hitting its 50th season milestone.

“The GOLDEN YEAR loading in Hamden…,” Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey wrote in an Instagram post. “Join us at The Bank in 2025-26 as we celebrate our 50th Anniversary season and stay tuned  for special events all year long!”

Not only is this post pinned at the top of its Instagram feed, but the team has also garnered a new logo to celebrate. This logo has become the team’s profile picture on various social media platforms, including Instagram and the social platform X.

Additionally, Quinnipiac women’s basketball is celebrating its 50th season, making an Instagram post asking people to save the date for its celebration.

“Friendly reminder, our 50th Anniversary Celebration is on October 11th! Make sure you save the date in your calendars #BeGreatToday,” the team wrote on Instagram.

Naturally, one might wonder: If all these teams have celebrations, why is women’s tennis not even aware of the milestone?

And that’s a question without a definite answer. But to honor the team’s 50th season in Hamden, let’s take a dive into the history of women’s tennis under the Sleeping Giant.

BEGINNING AND DIVISION II

The beginnings of Quinnipiac women’s tennis are hard to come by online, however, celebrating 50 seasons would mark 1975 as the beginning for the Bobcats.

The only acknowledgement of the team’s 50th year can be found on Senior Director, Content Strategy for Live Channels and Part-Time Faculty Jamie Deloma’s LinkedIn.

“Congratulations to the unparalleled Paula Miller for kicking off the 50th year of Quinnipiac University’s women’s tennis with a strong win at home,” Deloma wrote on LinkedIn.

While the first 11 years of competition remain unknown after scouring the internet, women’s tennis competed at the Division II level, dating as far back as 1987, according to the NE10 website.

During this time, Quinnipiac competed in the Northeast-10 conference, where it was noted that it was one of the 1989-98 runner-ups, with Merrimack, to Springfield in the NE10 Women’s Tennis Championship. Quinnipiac was also runners-up in 1992-93, before being crowned champions in 1993-94, 1995-96 and 1996-97.

During its last year in the Northeast-10, 1997-98, Quinnipiac was runner-up in the championships to Pace University.

DIVISION I

Quinnipiac athletics made the switch from Division II to Division I in 1998, marking a pivotal moment in program history.

With its switch to Division I, Quinnipiac joined the Northeast Conference. In the NEC, the Bobcats performed strongly over the years.

From 2000-2004, Quinnipiac was runner-up to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, before winning five straight titles. With the chance to six-peat, the Bobcats slipped back into the runners-up column, falling to Long Island University.

In 2011, the Bobcats grabbed the title once again, before being runners-up in 2012 and 2013.

MAAC CONFERENCE

After competing in the NEC for 15 years, women’s tennis transitioned to the Mid Atlantic Athletic Conference in 2013, where the Bobcats continue to compete to this day.

Since joining the MAAC, Quinnipiac has won nine MAAC titles, winning five straight from 2014-2018.

Moreover, multiple Bobcats have been awarded with Most Outstanding Player in the MAAC, including Jacqueline Raynor ‘15 twice, Sydney Young ‘17, Jennifer Lu ‘19 twice, Alessia Truden ‘23, Nikole Lisovyy and sophomore Willow Renton.

PAULA MILLER

Miller stepped into the role of head coach for the Bobcats during the 2014-2015 season, and has proved to be a great leader for Quinnipiac. Prior to being head coach, Miller served as assistant coach for the Bobcats for 15 seasons. Miller was once a Bobcat herself, graduating from Quinnipiac in 1996.

During her time as head coach, Miller has been awarded MAAC Coach of the Year eight times, while tallying nine perfect regular seasons.

NCAA TOURNAMENT

Under the leadership of Miller for 14 seasons, Quinnipiac women’s tennis has made seven appearances in the NCAA Tournament, as a result of an automatic bid from winning its conference. According to Quinnipiac Athletics, the Bobcats’ seven NCAA tournament appearances are the most by any MAAC Women’s Tennis team.