Dowd is chosen as interim tennis coach

Late last month, the Athletic Department named Michael Dowd the interim women's tennis coach. Dowd will remain coach until the department conducts a search this spring to replace Cissie Leary, who passed away at age 42 in November after leading the program for two decades. The boyish-looking Dowd -- who served as the men's and women's assistant tennis coach during the previous year-and-a-half -- had taken on a larger role on the women's team last semester as Leary grew increasingly ill. But Dowd adds that Leary coached the team so well, it almost coached itself. "The best teams are self-run and self-motivated," Dowd said. "I feel privileged to take over such a team, a team Cissie built, a team that's 57th in the country right now." The Quakers went 6-2 in dual matches last semester and tied for third place in the East at the ITA Team Regional Championships. Leary, who died of the auto-immune disease scleroderma, had a 229-119 career record, with 16 winning seasons. There will be a memorial service for her on February 1 at 11 a.m. at the Annenberg School Theatre, 3620 Walnut St. Both Dowd and his players venerated Leary. "How Cissie dealt with people was amazing," Dowd said. "She could talk to you and give you confidence in what you were doing, [and] she gave me the confidence to help run the team last semester." Co-captain Andi Grossman, a junior, remembers when Leary flew to a meet at Yale last semester despite her condition. "We didn't realize that her death was imminent," Grossman said. But she is pleased Dowd was named interim coach: "I can't imagine it being anyone else." Co-captain Lara Afanassiev described Dowd as "a really good friend, on and off the court." Dowd has been an assistant men's and women's coach at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Prior to coaching at Penn, he helped run the merchandise shop at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md. A four-year starter for the George Washington University's men's tennis team, Dowd was a two-time captain, NCAA Region I Volvo Rookie of the Year, record-holder for most career wins, Atlantic 10 Senior of the Year. He is a 1994 graduate of GW and was the Colonials' MVP his senior year. Dowd is currently ranked No. 5 in the Men's Mid-Atlantic Region Tennis rankings and has played in several ATP Satellite Tournaments.