Sandy Xenos served as the head women’s tennis coach at Stonehill for 16 seasons. To say that she laid the foundation for one of the top tennis programs in the East Region would be an understatement.
Xenos took over a program in 1988 that had gone winless the year prior and produced one of the most remarkable turnarounds of a program that the College has seen. She led Stonehill to an overall mark of 164-71 (.698) that included three Northeast-10 Conference championships in 1991 and 1992 (when Stonehill posted back-to-back undefeated slates in league play) and in 2002.
Xenos came to Stonehill after competing on the United States Tennis Association’s New England Tour as a ranked player for 15 years while also serving as a teaching pro during that time. Sandy guided Stonehill to five dual-match victories during her first campaign, and she completed a remarkable turnaround in 1989 and 1990 by leading her squad to a 20-13 combined record, including 11 Northeast-10 triumphs. The 1989 season marked the first time ever that Stonehill had achieved a winning season, and no Xenos team posted a sub-.500 mark after that. Sandy’s efforts were recognized by her peers in 1990 as she was named as the Northeast-10 Conference Coach of the Year.
Stonehill’s dominance continued under Xenos’ reign in 1991, as she led Stonehill to a 14-2 overall record that included a perfect 9-0 Northeast-10 mark, the first league championship in school history and yet more personal recognition, as she was tabbed as the Northeast-10 Coach of the Year for the second straight season. But the best was yet to come, as in 1992 Stonehill notched a school-record 15 victories, posting an unblemished 15-0 mark overall and another 9-0 slate in conference play to earn the league championship for the second consecutive year. Xenos guided her troops to an 11-2 mark in 1993 as NE-10 runners-up, and the 2002 campaign brought the third championship of the Xenos era to Easton along with Stonehill’s first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II National Championships.
One of Xenos’ former student-athletes, Karen Beaulieu ‘93, as well as her 1990 and 1991 NE-10 Championship teams have also been inducted to the Stonehill Athletic Hall of Fame.
