Senior women's tennis player Rachel Cooper has been named as the 2020-21 UMW Athletics Comeback Athlete of the Year, as selected by the UMW athletic training staff.

In March 2020, Cooper suffered a severe knee injury while the women's tennis team was competing in California during spring break. As quickly as the team got back they were send home due to COVID.

Navigating knee surgery, and physical therapy during the summer of shifting COVID mandates and regulations was no easy task and when Rachel got back to campus in September she knew she had a lot of work to do with her sights set on competing in a spring tennis season.

She put in work five days a week during the fall semester, fighting through challenging rehab sessions to get the strength and agility she needed to compete.

Fast forward to the spring 2021 semester as a captain she had a 10-2 singles record, 3-0 doubles record and helped lead the women's tennis team to a national quarterfinal appearance in the 2021 NCAA tennis tournament.