RIPON, Wis. - Mike Milburn '97 and Kevin Weber '98 are individually two of the best players in the storied history of Ripon's Men's Tennis program, but together, they were nearly unstoppable. Weber graduated as the program's all-time winningest singles player, currently ranking third with a 73-10 record, while Milburn was tied for second at the time of his graduation, currently ranking sixth with a record of 69-16. Together, they forged a partnership that resulted in a 58-19 career doubles record, which ranks fourth in program history and culminated in both players earning All-American honors in 1997, when they advanced to the NCAA Championships.

"My Ripon College tennis journey was absolutely fantastic on so many levels. We had a distinct team with different personalities during all four of my years, but ultimately we delivered pretty incredible results every single year. I didn't know it at the time, but embracing the yearly challenges of the changing teammates and changing schedules was a North Star that continues to guide me to this day," Milburn said. "Tennis can be an extremely lonely sport, so being able to compete in front of my parents, who sponsored so much of my time in juniors, was incredibly powerful. I always enjoyed playing tennis, but don't think I loved tennis until I had the opportunity to compete at Ripon."

Milburn also won two Midwest Conference Singles Championships, bookending his career with titles at the number two and one flights, respectively. Weber is a three-time MWC singles champion, doing so in three different flights. Together, they were part of two MWC Team Championships, accomplishing that feat as freshmen, and again as seniors. The duo played at the number one doubles flight together during all four of their years with the team.

"We had incredibly talented teams during my Ripon College career," Weber said. "A few of our teams were so strong that winning the conference championship was easy and our real challenge came at a regional and/or national level."

Weber and Milburn saw that challenge come to fruition in their final season with the team, as they qualified for the 1997 NCAA Division-III National Championships, hosted by Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. That led their doubles team to a seventh-place ranking in all of Division-III.

"Our first round match was against a strong team from the College of New Jersey. We got destroyed in the first set (1-6) and were worried we'd be one and done and headed back to Ripon on a plane later that day," Weber said. "Mike and I then made some adjustments, fought like crazy, and came back to win the second and third sets (6-2, 6-2). We won the match to advance to the semifinals against a really good UC-Santa Cruz team, but lost to them in two sets, 6-4, 6-4."

Although advancing to within one match of the National Championship is a tremendous feat for anyone, it was even more impressive for Weber and Milburn, who played an unorthodox style of doubles that likely caught the ire of many tennis traditionalists.

"We played from the baseline, using our ground-strokes and returns as our main weapons, which at the time was highly unusual and almost sacrilegious," Milburn said. "Ripon was a top 10 team in Division-III during our tenure, but our tennis program didn't really have a National brand, so we entered that National Tournament in 1997 as these funky kids from a small college town in Wisconsin with a disruptive style of play. We had one of those Cinderella runs that ultimately ended in the semifinals."

Because they played such an unorthodox style of play, it was great to have Head Tennis Coach and Ripon College Athletics Hall of Famer Chuck Larson '65 squarely in their corner.

"Coach Larson was very supportive of our baseline doubles style of play, which we excelled at," Milburn said. "It was a groundbreaking strategy at the time because everyone served and volleyed in doubles. If Coach Larson had pushed us to play that way because everyone else did it, we wouldn't have had the success that we did at the national level."

Larson was an MWC singles champion in his own right as a player for Ripon, before leading the program to 19 MWC Team Championships over the course of a nearly 40-year span as head coach. He knew his players well, and let them play to their strengths, which is the sign of a great coach.

"Mike and Kevin were outstanding singles players with dynamite forehands, but they lacked the basic doubles skills to be successful at "traditional" doubles," Larson said. "Eventually, they showed me and the rest of NCAA Division-III tennis that doubles could be played successfully with both players at the baseline, as they defeated two seeded teams in the National Tournament along the way."

For Milburn and Weber, the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament and be recognized as All-Americans was one of the highlights of their college careers, but it's their interactions with Coach Larson and the rest of their teammates that will last a lifetime.

"Coach Larson created a remarkable tennis program that consistently delivered success and it was clear that he woke up each day thinking about his players and his team," Milburn said. "He encouraged us to not only be great athletes, but great people as well. We're both eternally grateful for each of our degrees in Political Science."

Milburn currently resides in Austin, Texas where he is a President at Salsify, while Weber lives in Limerick, Pa., working at Vanguard, one of the world's largest investment management companies, as a Product Owner for their brokerage trading platform.


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