Vanderbilt’s first four-time All-American in women’s tennis and an important part of the first team to play for a national title, Sarah Riske McGlamery set a standard of excellence for all who followed.
Riske already had a championship legacy by the time she arrived in Nashville. At Peters Township High School in McMurray, Pennsylvania, she won singles state titles in 1998 and 1999. She also won the 1998 USTA Junior International Grass Court Championships. For Vanderbilt head coach Geoff Macdonald, the highly touted recruit’s decision to attend Vanderbilt was an important building block in launching the program’s first golden era.
At Vanderbilt, Riske was ranked as high as No. 12 in the country in doubles her first year. In 2001, as a sophomore, she followed that debut with top-25 rankings in both singles and doubles and helped lead the Commodores to the national championship match for the first time. She also earned the opportunity to compete in the individual singles and doubles championships.
Riske completed her collegiate career with two of the program’s most prolific seasons. As a junior, she earned ITA All-America honors in singles and in doubles alongside partner Aleke Tsoubanos. She repeated both honors as a senior, again partnering with Tsoubanos.
Riske and Tsoubanos reached the quarterfinals in back-to-back NCAA doubles championships. In 2002, the pair won the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships, one of three national championship-level events during that year’s women’s college tennis season (along with the ITA Indoor Championships and NCAA Championships). Riske was also a top-10 seed in the singles draw for that prestigious event, but the doubles title illustrated Vanderbilt’s collaborative culture in action.
“We’ll set up some plays together, but for the most part we let each other do what we do best,” Riske told Vanderbilt Magazine in 2003. “We really trust each other in that. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Aleke has faster hands than I do, quicker hands at the net. She puts the point away more. I more or less play straight up and make the other team play another ball. Aleke will lob, she’ll drop shot, more touch. She does well off my serve. She moves across the court; she poaches very well.”
In all, the Commodores compiled a 96-22 overall record during Riske’s career, reaching at least the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Championships every year.
After pursuing her own professional career, winning five tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour, she helped coach and mentor her younger sister, Allison Riske-Amritraj, a former Wimbledon quarterfinalist who has ranked as high as the top 20 in the world.
