Sometimes freshmen, especially in the fall season while adjusting to college life, take a while to work their way into the flow of athletics. Not so for Ann Radloff Hubbard. She made her collegiate tennis debut in September of 1976, just months after graduating from Rock Island High School, defeating opponents from Illinois State and the University of Iowa at number one singles. She and classmate Beth McLaughlin, a fellow Augustana Hall of Fame inductee, won both of their matches at number one doubles that day as well. By the end of her freshman season, Radloff had put together a dual meet record of 6-1 each in singles and doubles.
By the end of her career, she owned Illinois Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women state singles and doubles championships and was a member of three straight IAIAW team state champions as well. In addition, she was named an AIAW doubles All-American in the spring of 1980, when she helped lead Augustana to a 14th-place national finish.
Radloff bettered her overall record of 16-5 as a freshman with a 19-1 ledger during her sophomore campaign. She went 4-0 each in dual meet singles and doubles and posted an 11-1 singles mark in tournament play. She won the state singles championship, defeating teammate McLaughlin, 7-6 and 6-3 in the finals. Augustana claimed the team state title as well. She also went 3-0 at regional competition in the spring of her sophomore year to advance to nationals in Santa Barbara, California.
As a junior, she helped lead Augustana to a 6-1 dual meet record and a second straight state championship. She just missed repeating as a state singles champion, losing in the finals to Alice Wright of Wheaton, 7-5 and 6-2.
During her senior season, Radloff helped lead the Vikings to a 12-0 dual meet record. At the 1979 IAIAW state meet, she fought through a sprained ankle suffered in the singles semifinals, teaming with McLaughlin to defeat Wright and Jane Nelson of Wheaton, 7-6 and 6-3 for the state doubles championship. Despite falling in the singles semis to eventual champ Lori Gross of Lake Forest, her performance helped Augustana to its third consecutive team state title. The following spring she earned AIAW All-America honors in doubles and helped lead Augustana to a 14th-place finish at the national meet.
Radloff graduated from Augustana in 1980 with a degree in medical technology. Her professional career started at Franciscan Medical Center in Rock Island and she has since worked for the American Red Cross and Rush Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, St. Raphael Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut and the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For the past decade she has been a volunteer tennis coach at Huron High School in Ann Arbor.
Ann’s husband, Brad Hubbard, is a 1981 Augustana graduate. They have three children, Timothy, Elizabeth and Benjamin, and currently reside in Ann Arbor, where they are members of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. In addition, they serve as a host family, and Ann as an area representative, for Youth for Understanding. She is also active in Ann Arbor’s Natural Area Preservation.
