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The Ivy League is an athletic conference featuring eight of the most selective colleges in the country. In addition to academic excellence, those institutions are also able to field strong tennis teams - seven of the sixteen programs are ranked in the latest Campbell/ITA Rankings. They are able to compete at the highest level - and they do it without offering athletic scholarships.

What kind of students do coaches at Ivy League schools look for? Where does tennis fit in? We put these questions to several coaches around the Ivy League - hear what they had to say.

Questions and Answers

Q) What are some of the main factors you look for in student-athletes you recruit to your program?

Danielle Lund McNamara, Yale Women: The two biggest factors we recruit for are academic and tennis success in high school - current ability and potential to improve in college. However, these are not the only factors.

We also look for people who love tennis. People who are excited about working hard in college and developing their games, people with strong character and integrity who will mesh well with our team's philosophy and personality, and players who want to be a part of a mission to take Yale to the top of college tennis.

Chuck Kinyon, Dartmouth Men: I look for students/athletes who have shown high academic achievement and feel academics are a vital part of their college experience.

On the tennis side most of our players have been 4- or 5-star recruits. Every now and then I will go after a player that is ranked a bit lower - but who has shown improvement during his junior and senior year.

One of the most important assets for a junior player is to have set their tennis goals beyond college! I find that many have set their goals on college, and once they get to their goal - college - they bottom out.