2010-2011… Year in Review

2010-2011… A Year in Review… Better late than never!

The Generals are back!

The 2010 Fall was a definite success. We had many players competing at ITA Regionals at Mary Washington. The weekend was capped off with Trelsie Sadler and Lauren Lukas winning the championship Doubles Flight. With the win they headed off to Mobile for the Small College Championships. Lauren and Trelsie lost two matches and won one, which earned them 6^th place in the tournament. The duo finished with a top 10 ITA Fall Ranking.

Trelsie and Lauren after winning Regional’s

LL & TS in Mobile

The Generals began the spring season with a busy March schedule. From blizzards in Minnesota to rain in Atlanta, the Generals put in the miles. Although the March results could have been better the team bonded through the miles. April started off great with an exciting victory over Carnegie Mellon in the Duchossois Tennis Center. The rest of April was pretty quiet, until the ODAC Championships, where the team won it’s 10^th straight title, giving the Generals an automatic bid into NCAAs.

Lady Generals… 2011 ODAC Champs

The next week was the most anxious week of the year. We were waiting to see where the selection committee would send the team for Regionals. Off to Pittsburgh, PA we went to play in the Carnegie Mellon Regional. Being the top seed at the Regional, we earned a bye through the first round. In the second round we played Wilkes. The Generals rolled through our second round match, 5-0, advancing to the Regional Finals to play host Carnegie Mellon. We knew Carnegie would be out for revenge, so we were expecting a battle. After doubles, we were down 2-1. Due to inclement weather we were playing indoors on 4 courts. Jen Snyder was the first off the court with another pouncing victory over Tapak at #3 6-2, 6-1, making the match score 2-2. Lauren Lukas’ matched finished just minutes later with a tough loss to Chin at #2 6-4, 6-2. Sallie Griffin was the next to finish, loosing a heartbreaker at 5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 making the match score 4-2 in favor of the Tartans. At this point, Ellen Yeatman was on court 1, and Catherine Reed and Trelsie Sadler had just taken the courts to warm up. The Generals may have been down, but they definitely weren’t out. Trelsie and Catherine were playing commanding tennis and winning handily, as Ellen was making a comeback after loosing the first and being down in the second. The turning point of the match was Ellen winning the second set 7-5. The Generals were back in the match and took control of the momentum. Ellen won the third 6-4, followed by Trelsie winning 6-1 6-2. Catherine, our lone senior captain, clinched the match just minutes later, earning the Generals a spot in the NCAA Quarterfinals in Claremont, CA. What an exciting moment for The Generals.

After winning the Regional

Off to Claremont, CA, facing Emory in the Quarterfinals, the Generals were prepared for a battle. Emory played extremely poised and we came up short in the match, ending our run towards an NCAA Championship. After we were eliminated from the team championship, we had a few days before the Individual Championships started, se we explored California. From the Santa Monica Pier, to Rodeo Drive and the Hollywood sign, we were able to enjoy the trip as a team.

The Team (minus Catherine who was off Graduating) at the Santa Monica Pier

Ellen, Trelsie and Lauren were competing in the individual championships which started a few days later. Ellen had a tough win over Lauren Quisenberry of MIT before falling to Kendra Higgins of Chicago. Lauren and Trelsie lost to the eventual Champs from Amherst in a tough fought battle. All three Generals finished the year with All- American status.

The 2010-2011 year was a definite success and full of great memories. The Generals will miss our senior captain Catherine Reed, who is off conquering the geology world in San Antonio, TX.

Check back for our next blog about the 2011 fall season.

GOOOO Generals

Ice Cold Generals

And we’re off again to Mary Washington. In preparation for this weekend fourteen W & L women’s tennis players participated in the Fall Kickoff Classic last weekend. It was very successful with both Trelsie Sadler and Sallie Griffin winning their flights. The tournament was split up by flights according to singles and doubles standings on the team. Mary Washington, Longwood, Liberty, and Washington & Lee all competed in the tournament. Each player competed in six matches for the weekend for a total of three doubles and three singles matches. Each day ended with lots of water for hydration and unfortunately an ice bath as well. Our new couch, Bianca, started a new ice bath tradition in which each day after match play we have to sit in her selfmade hotel ice bath with another team member for ten minutes.  Sallie and I were the first ones to try this new concept. We walked into Bianca’s hotel room to find the tub filled with water.  As we touched the water we realized it was warm. Bianca swore she turned the knob to cold and touched the water to find it was warm. She said that someone on the team must have come into the hotel room while the tub was filling and turned it to warm. Typical of our team. Bianca sent us away as she emptied the tub and filled it with cold water, guarding the bathtub the whole time. She called Sallie and I back in to the bathroom. We hesitantly stepped into the FREEZING water and started screaming. It was so cold! Bianca told us to settle down because it was 10:00 pm and people in the hotel may get scared when they heard a bunch of girls screaming. When our legs were fully immersed in the water Bianca dumped a huge trash bag of ice into the bathtub. Luckily I was smart enough to sit on the inside of the tub so all the ice was dumped on Sallie whose skin got so cold she looked like a reptile (After all, her animal is an alligator).  After 5 minutes went by, I lost all feeling in my legs and the rest of the ice bath went by pretty fast. The worst part was getting out of the ice bath. Once I stepped out of the tub my skin started burning and stinging. After about 5 minutes the feeling of my legs came back. During the next hour or so I could hear screaming outside my room as more and more of the team entered the ice bath in Bianca’s room. At one point I looked out my door to see Bianca carrying Laura Simmons down the hallway and into the room. The best reaction to the ice bath was when Lauren Lukas entered and instantly started crying her eyes out. She said that she had not cried in years but she “just hates ice baths so much”. As self-proclaimed jaguar Lauren Lukas might need her animal changed back to her golden retriever. Even yesterday I told Lukas I would pick her up from the tennis center after she was done icing. I walked in to find a crying Lauren Lukas, and the ice bath was only for her one foot.  As we walked out she continued to hysterically cry and I could not help but snap pictures of it (I promised Lauren I would not put them on the blog). Although it was painful, the ice baths were definitely worth it because no one was sore the next day. It was like we didn’t even play the day before.

Sallie and I in the ice bath with Bianca

Lukas and Reed in the ice bath (notice Lukas' red, tearful eyes)

Bianca carrying Laura Simmons into her room for the ice bath

On the way home from Mary Washington we had an interesting encounter with a strange man at a McDonalds in Staunton.  When we stopped at McDonald’s for a bathroom break I walked in to find a tall, creepy man talking to Eric and Bianca. He asked them if they were soccer coaches and they told him that they were actually tennis coaches. He continued to say “Well, you know I just wanted to tell the soccer team that even though they lost they still need to keep trying. Now, that applies to tennis too. I played football, basketball, soccer, tennis, everything. I have some coaching advice for you too…” At that point I walked out the door and hid in the van. Five minutes later the man appeared at the van. The side doors were open and he approached Lauren Lukas who was sitting on the end seat. He started his speech over again. “Oh, are y’all on the tennis team? Now I played football, basketball, soccer, tennis, everything. I have some advice for you. You just gotta keep trying you know?” As he went on with his speech Lauren Lukas proceeded to slam both doors in his face and jab the lock button down.  He moved towards the closed window and continued with his speech until he finally took a hint and walked away. Thanks Lukas!

Another highlight of last weekend was when Eric and Bianca cooked us a spaghetti dinner at Eric’s new house. We spent most of the night playing with his roommate’s Labrador who could give high fives and lots of other cool tricks. Eric even let us eat cake for Chelsea Mixson’s birthday. This was a big step for Eric considering he made me run a suicide last year after eating a small piece of cheesecake.  After dinner we went out to Bianca’s car to get our uniforms. She organized all the uniforms for us. When we were collecting our uniforms a whole basket of balls fell out of Bianca’s car. Since Eric’s house was on a hill the whole team had to spend the next ten minutes chasing balls down the street.  Finally we collected all the balls and we went home to get some sleep. The next morning we had to be at school by 5:55 am. It was the earliest I have ever woken up and hopefully the last time I will ever have to be up that early.  I slept the whole way there until we stopped and I rolled between the seats and woke up.

Although there are a lot of changes this season we are off to a good start. We love our new assistant coach, Bianca, and we miss Ann and Ellen who are both abroad in Scotland. There is more to come next week after our weekend at Mary Washington for regionals. Wish us luck!

PEACE OUT,

Jen

P.S. In response to Ellen’s post I would like to say that I did have lunch with Elliot the next day when my eye was fully healed. We miss you Elliot!

Bittersweet in “General”

We’re baccckkkk!!!! And A LOT has changed!
The tennis team is off to a stupendous start. Catherine Reed, the only senior on the team this year, has been rallying the troops together to practice everyday over the past week and a half. Practice involves the typical 15-minute warm-up, pouring water on ourselves in the blazing heat, groundstroke drills, Laura Simmons performing a dance routine to the ‘Peacock’ song by Katy Perry (Kei$ha is so four months ago) catching all the bridge walkers by surprise because who knew tennis players could bust such wild dance moves, a few points, and then we end practice with a two court sprint. So everyone watch out because not only are we going to be stronger and faster, but we have a secret weapon (hint: her initials are L.S.) whose distracting dance moves will throw anyone off their game. Oh and we are bigger this year! We have four awesome freshmen coming in. All of our fans out there will be meeting them soon in the coming weeks after we get to know them.
Now, here is the sad news. Elliott Datlow, the best assistant tennis coach and Meer cat impersonator ever to live, is moving to D.C. Elliott, it has been an AWESOME two years. We all will miss you so very much, especially your calming presence on the court, wise words, hopeless arguments, and “great” musical taste. The tennis team met for dinner last Tuesday at Salerno’s, the go-to pizza place for tennis team dinners, to say farewell to Elliott and hear a goodbye speech of course. Everyone was able to come except for the freshmen and Jen here who woke up that day unable to open her eyes! Despite her lack of eyesight, she went to lunch and some stores in town. She had to walk down the street clinging on to what was hopefully the friend she was with. When feeling up every piece of clothing in the store, she came upon this one piece of clothing that she had a paranormal connection with so she bought it, trusting that her friends wouldn’t lie to her about the true price of the shirt. Fortunately, she has great friends and she went out the next night looking great in her new, hot pink and totally Jen shirt. If she was shopping with me, I would have convinced her to buy a fashionable dress from Pumpkinseeds, but what really was leopard overalls from Goodwill. After her long day of walking around town blind, she was worn out and in too much pain to make it to dinner.
So back to the romantic dinner with Elliott. The team gave Elliott a picture frame that we signed with a picture from all of the team last year and a sweet Hallmark card. The best gift he received was from Thing 1, a.k.a Laura Simmons. This was a CD Laura burned and as Laura Patillo would say, “it’s the music from her secret life at European raves”. But Laura stated boldly that he had to play this special CD at his first housewarming party because it was the ONLY way to get a party started. As she was telling Elliott this, Thing 2, Sallie Griffin, shook her head fiercely in the background. Sallie dearly noted that when Elliott jams to this CD on his way home to D.C., he must roll all his windows up and play at a level of volume that is not audible to anyone outside of the car. It would be quite unfortunate if Elliott corrupted cute ole’ Lexington with the Peacock song. The rest of the dinner involved sharing great stories and harking upon how much we missed Caire and Blair. SHOUT OUT. We miss you guys! Ya’ll were the best captains ever. Jen and I are so honored to be the chosen ones to continue the blog even though we know that we can never reach your level of success and eloquence. (Note: Caire and Blair reached over 3,000 blog views! Please give them a round of applause if you are reading this) At the end of the dinner, Elliott gave a nice, long ‘adios’ speech. I am pretty sure I saw some tears form. Elliott told us how hard his decision was to leave W&L and he begged us to keep in touch. Also, he promised to come to as many of our matches as possible this year! Finally, he approved of the new assistant coach coming in to replace him. Bianca Svensson is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama. Yes, she played Division I SEC tennis! She has the resume, but does she have the style and, more importantly, the dance moves. I am feeling an assistant coach of the week blog coming up next. The team is very excited to start working with Bianca. It is going to be a great year!

A Final Farewell

Blair and I have had so much fun with the blog this year and we hope you’ve enjoyed it too. No worries, the fun doesn’t stop just because we are graduating. Jen and Ellen will be taking the reigns in the fall to keep you updated on W&L Women’s Tennis. For our last post, we wanted to talk about the fun we’ve been having with the team over the past week or so.

First, we had the all sports team banquet on Tuesday after we returned from Atlanta and then on Thursday we had an end of season dinner with the whole team at the Livery.  As seniors, we got a little sentimental about all of it, but we had a great time and we are going to miss you all so much next year! In keeping with the tradition of this tennis team, we will definitely be back for lots of alumni weekends and promise to visit as many matches as possible. Here are a few pictures from the past week of banquets and dinners and goodbyes!

Peace out and see you soon,

Blair and Lauren

Summer Birthdays Get Celebrated!

Team Dinner at the Livery

Seniors

Juniors

Sophomores

Freshmen

Seniors Like the Color Coral

Team at the Sports Banquet

Hotlanta

Since we’ve previously experienced some difficulties with charter buses, we opted for a cozy van this time around. Thursday night we drove sans iPod hook-up to Greenville, SC–our “halfway” stop on the way to Atlanta for the first three rounds of Nationals. As you can see in the picture below, Eric and Elliott “surprised” us by booking rooms at a hotel that was not only part of a country club, but whose interior resembled a tropical rainforest.

Painting Our Nails Generals Blue

They are Cute

In the morning we woke up for a breakfast in the rainforest, hit on the courts outside, and then jumped in the pool to test out Jen’s supposed inability to float.  Well it turns out after much debate, she actually can’t float, along with half our team.  Her explanation is that she is all muscle mass (proven false by Michael Phelps).

The Hotel / Jungle

After that, we hit the road for Atlanta and ended up in the middle of nowhere ATL thanks to the unreliable iPhone GPS app. When we asked for directions to the actual Emory University, people just laughed at us because we were so far away. Eventually, we found our way to the Emory courts and got a hit in before heading to Houston’s for dinner with Becca Timmis!

Houston's

The next day we played a great match against Vassar and moved on to the Sweet Sixteen to play Emory.  Unfortunately, that was where our season ended but everyone played their hardest and left it all out on the courts.  While we were there we got to have a yummy homecooked dinner at the Pattillo’s, which was DELICIOUS as usual.  Thanks Joanie, Laura, Mr. Pattillo for having us all over for a great dinner!  And thanks to all our friends and family who came to support us.  You guys are the best!

Dinner at the Pattillo's!

Lauren and Ellen Playing Doubles

NCAA Tournament

For all our fans, here is the link to the Emory athletics page with the schedule, live scores, NCAA Tournament Bracket, directions, and a visitors guide.  Hope to see you in Atlanta!

Spotlight on Jen Snyder!

Get to know sophomore Jen Snyder from Highland Heights, Ohio.  Learn about her career aspirations, favorite music, and more!

Why did you choose W&L?
I choose W and L because I wanted to branch out for college. I am from the Midwest so I knew I definitely wanted to go somewhere in the South. I also wanted to go somewhere with a good tennis team and W and L had just won nationals. It’s also a plus that it is much warmer here than in Cleveland.

What’s your major?
Biology

What’s your animal?
Black Lab puppy

Favorite place in Lexington?
Wal Mart because it is open 24/7 and it is where I get all my necessities such as food and themed outfits for parties.

Favorite activity outside of tennis?
Soccer. I played throughout high school on the State Team and I miss it. It kept me in good shape for tennis too. I also like how it was a contact sport so you could foul people. I actually got a red card and got kicked out of the last soccer game I ever played in.

Favorite ice cream flavor?
Cookies and Cream although D-hall had a flavor called fuzzy foot raspberry that sounds tasty (true story).

If you could eat anywhere on a tennis trip where would it be?
Pattillo’s house. Joanie is the best cook. It was my favorite part of going to Atlanta. Nothing beats home cooked food. I would know because my mom does not cook and we get take out or go out to eat every night.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be a dentist. My dad is also a dentist. He brushed and flossed my teeth until I was in high school. I have never had a cavity!

What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited?
I don’t travel that many places. My dad has not flown on an airplane since 9/11 and he canceled all our cool vacations after that. I have never been out of the country so I’m going to have to go with Sanibel, Florida. It is very relaxing island off the coast of Florida and it’s also where I had my first tennis lesson ever. My mom calls it our “most expensive vacation” because that’s when I decided I wanted to play tennis.

What’s your favorite tennis memory?
My favorite memory was our Spring Break Trip to Charleston, South Carolina last spring. The team got to stay in a beach house and it was a really fun team experience. My favorite memory from the trip was the “cookie scare”. Another good memory would be when we beat Emory this year at Fab 5 with all the tennis alumni there and cheering for us.

The Beach House

Family Circle Cup in Charleston

Wildlife

Favorite band or artist ?
Kid Cudi. I actually liked him before he even became famous. He is from Cleveland too. I like to rap to his songs, especially on tennis trips. I know all the words to every rap song so that’s why my nickname is J-pac.Eric likes to call me J-pac on the court- it intimidates people.

J-Pac showing off her mad rap skills

What’s your favorite color and why?
Red because it is the color I make my opponent’s face.

LIVE SCORING for May 1st Carnegie Mellon Match!

The Generals head up to Pennsylvania to play Carnegie Mellon at 11am this Saturday!  Follow these links for live scoring!

Men:

http://www.enrollment.cmu.edu/athletics/mtennis/xlive.htm


Women:

http://www.enrollment.cmu.edu/athletics/tennis/xlive.htm

Spotlight on Sallie Griffin

This week’s spotlight is on freshman Sallie Griffin from Warrenton, Va

Why did you choose W&L?
I wanted to be scholarly AND play tennis, and have a life on the side. And the tennis girls were nice to me and welcoming when I visited unlike some other places I visited. Jen Snyder also made a very good first impression, even though I didn’t actually meet her.

On the court

Off the court

What’s your major?
I have not yet found my passion. Just having to say that is stressing me out.

What’s your animal?
Alligator. I haven’t yet received a solid explanation for that one yet…

Sallie + Alligator =

SALLIGATOR

What’s your favorite place in Lexington?
Southern Inn. Blackened chicken penne pasta is where it’s at.

What’s your favorite activity outside of tennis?
Soccer. Although if i had kept up with my tap dancing, that would probably be my answer. I was a crazy tap dancer in my younger days.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
Cake batter ice cream with cookie dough from cold stone.

If you could eat anywhere on a tennis trip where would it be?
Dairy Queen because it would make me feel rebellious.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
I told everyone I wanted to be a dentist like the other 7 dentists in my family, but that was a lie. I don’t often admit this, but I grew up wanting to be an astronaut, or even just study space stuff. Now that I realize that being an astronaut is probably not an option (W&L doesn’t even have an astronomy class, I checked), I have decided to spice things up, get a little crazy, and shoot for law school.

What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited?
Jost Van Dyke, BVI-also one of Kenny Chesney’s favorite hang outs. Significance of this is explained by the question after next.

What’s your favorite tennis memory?
My experiences are somewhat limited, being a freshman and all, but I’d say watching Christian the Lion. Maybe not the funniest memory but definitely the most sentimental. See attachment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btuxO-C2IzE&feature=related

Sallie loves school spirit

What’s your favorite band or artist?
The first love of my life was Kenny Chesney. I don’t even care that he’s bald, because when I was 13 I decided that when I married him he would never take his cowboy hat off. I have moved on to other artists and branched out since middle school but that will forever be my answer to that question.

What’s your favorite color and why?
Turquoise, like the color of the water in the caribbean. (also, might I add, the color of our new sick tennis shoes thanks to Blair)

A blast from the past: Junior tennis doubles champions

Still bff's years later

2010 ODAC Champs!

Today was the final day of the ODAC Championship tournament and the Generals finished victorious with a 5-0 win over Hollins, followed by a celebratory lunch at Blue Sky.  And an extra congratulations to Lauren Caire for winning ODAC Player of the Year and Eric for winning ODAC Coach of the Year! 

2010 ODAC Champs!