October 18, 2005 - Linda Tien

Our three-peat last spring was hard to come by, and a four-peat this year will be just as hard! But our fall season started off on a good note with the addition of two new players on our team- Amy Bedell and Jenny Moscato.

Even though the season ended early, what it lacked in length it definitely made up for in intensity. Our regular practices were supplemented with 7am conditioning twice a week with Steve and two hours of practice on both Saturdays and Sundays. Our recruits also kept us on our toes. We found ourselves coordinating recruit drop-offs and lunch dates left and right.

All of our efforts culminated in the ITA Regional Tournament, which we hosted. The stars were not in our favor when the deadly curse of the women's tennis team (the cramp) returned. We'll soon be experts on the perfect combination of bananas, Gatorade, and water needed to cure the cramp! Besides that though, the tournament was a success: we had an all-Emory final in every draw of the tournament. Sam and I ended up winning the doubles and Serena won the singles.

We represented the Eagles at ITA Nationals in sunny Ft. Myers. Sam and I placed 7th, but we were happy with how we played. Serena played a stellar match in the finals, barely losing to Amy from Carnegie Mellon (9-7 in third set tiebreak).

We had fun, barring me running into and knocking Amy over when we were jogging (nasty bruise! oops). And try as we did, we never came across the Florida panther amiss the curious plethora of Panther Crossing signs. Nor did we ever find that crazy wild boar from last year. It was meant to be a wildlife weekend - Sam took one for the team when a monster wasp bit her in a swimsuit store (it definitely wasn't a bee, they hurt less). Amy capitalized and got a good discount for her swimsuit!

Even though our fall season has ended, we have a lot to look forward to. Captain's practices and weights will prepare us for the spring. Spring will bring many more morning sprints and weekend practices, but it will all be worth it: we'll be heading towards a fourth national championship! We will not capitulate!

March 11, 2006 - Indu Anand

We were up at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning to leave Atlanta. After a stressful week of midterms, we were ready for the warm sunny weather of California. Unfortunately, to our surprise, it was raining and hailing on the drive to our hotel! I am from Chicago, and this was the biggest hail I had ever seen! We were starving after our flight and a little lost on the highway, so we stopped off at Farmer Boys "world greatest burgers" for lunch. It was delicious, cheap fast food, and they had a great variety of burritos, burgers, salads, and the HUGE onion rings which looked better than they tasted.

We finally got to the hotel and settled into our rooms. Jamie, Jenny, and I went to Target to pick up some stuff while some other girls walked across the street to get their nails done. Apparently, there was a 99 cent store next door with crazy toys which made excellent grab bag gifts. That evening for dinner we had tasty bread and pastas from the Macaroni Grill. We pretended that it was Christine's birthday, and the hostess sang opera "Happy Birthday" to her in Italian. We shared the free desert.

It had been an exhausting week and day. I went to bed at 8 p.m. California time to energize for our first match against Pomona and to get ready for our 21 Choices debut!

March 12, 2006 - Cristina Arellano

Our day started off nice and early with a couple of girls waking up at 6 a.m. We snuck into our coach's hotel room to confiscate the three boxes of cereal and bags of fruit we bought the day before. The whole team was wide awake by 7 a.m. and by 7:15, we were ready to take our morning jog that lasted a grand total of 12 minutes. But no one can deny, the trail at the foot of the mountains provided us with a glorious view and numbing fresh air.

We headed out to Pomona Pitzer at around 10 a.m. and began our warm up to Kanye West. The day grew cloudier as we started off with doubles. Emory finished with four beautiful victories; the last one provided by Christine Ingoldsby's amazing talent for quick volleys and creative visualization techniques.

In our singles matches we came out tough. Slipping and sliding away in the rain, we managed to win most of our first sets. There was tons of cheering going on, mostly done by one person who kept yelling "HENS!" It took me a while to realize that that was Pomona's mascot.

After hanging out in a utility closet for about an hour eating humus, taking pictures and stealing equipment; the coaches decided to call it a day.

The team headed to an Italian restaurant with our sweet and loyal fans Mr. & Mrs. Marasigan. We ordered about 10 family style dishes and were entertained by Jenny Moscato's attempted magic tricks. After having finished the last piece of pizza which was forced down Cristina's throat, the team headed to 21 Choices.

The team took over the petit frozen yogurt shop and sampled most of the flavors. After eating up our delicious concoctions, each to one's own liking, we rolled on back to the hotel and celebrated with some TV, managerial accounting, marketing, and MCAT reading. Our day was complete once we realized that we were going to Indian Wells to watch some seriously amazing tennis on Monday.

March 13, 2006 - Samantha Shapiro

Today was a beautiful day in California. We were all so excited to get the chance to see the professionals play at Indian Wells at the Pacific Life Open. We woke up early, hit for a little, then left for a lengthy drive to Palm Springs. When we arrived at the tournament we could not wait to jump out of the car and head straight for the courts. While roaming around, we saw great tennis everywhere. Some highlights included watching Leyton Hewitt on center court in a tough 3 set match, Tim Henman in a close match, as well as women's doubles on a few other courts. Aside from that it was also interesting to walk around the practice courts because we got the chance to be so close to the players without standing in a huge crowd. One of the most surprising moments was when Pete Sampras walked directly by a few of us, and it took us a few seconds to even register it was him!! Personally, I was on the lookout for James Blake, but as for my luck, he was not playing until 6 p.m.

After watching some great tennis, we headed over to Richie's house for some food. Richie's mom prepared amazing ceviche as well as make-your-own burritos. We relaxed at her house for quite a while then left to go do some shopping at the outlet malls. The outlet malls were pretty cool, I think everyone found something to buy since there were TONS of stores! People bought things from jewelry, to clothes, to shoes, as well as much more.

Finally after a long, tiring, exciting day, it was time to return to the hotel. No one could even keep their eyes open on the return back because we were so exhausted from such an exhilarating day.

March 15, 2006 - Jenny Moscato

Day four of our visit to California started off similar to the others with a brisk jog around the neighborhood and then a cozy breakfast consisting of bagels and cereal in Amy's room. Before this though, Indu and I had to pull some sneaky moves getting armfuls of plastic spoons and bowls from the hotel's breakfast area because on this trip I learned the women's tennis team always tries to be as economical as possible.

Following breakfast we started off for San Diego to play the Division II school UC-San Diego. No one was ever really certain of the duration of our car rides, but we knew that we would have enough I-tunes to keep us entertained for at least 6 hours, so no worries. We oohed and ahhed as we drove along the California coast and took in the sparkling ocean and clear sky.

After Sam's map skills were put to the test, we arrived at UCSD around noon. Indu had to ask a lot of people for directions to the cafeteria, but we successfully trekked across the huge school campus and found some lunch. After fueling our bodies, the team was raring to play this tough Division II school.

The sun was shining as we started out our doubles matches, but the beautiful day was not foretelling of our doubles results; we started out down 1-2. San Diego was very vocal and could taste victory, but the team was anything but ready to give up. We were still fresh and eager for our singles matches to start. All around the matches were tight and included multiple, grueling three setters. Long after the sun had set it came down to Linda's number one singles match to clinch the now tied 4-4 game. Thanks to Emory's loud cheering now matching that of San Diego's and Linda's spectacular playing, we pulled out the win that day.

Since the match had been an especially tough and long one everyone was ready for some dinner! The Marasigans led the caravan to a popular sushi restaurant in down town San Diego. Despite how safely we drove though, California streets and highways are always the places to expect hindrances and surprises. First our cars had to swerve to avoid hitting a full chest of drawers that had fallen and smashed smack into the middle of the freeway. Later there were encounters with one way streets, roaring trolley cars, and mysterious parking garages. However, I don't think I am alone in saying that the 2 hour car trip to San Diego would have been worth it just for the sushi we experienced that night. No matter if you ordered crunchy rolls, steaming noodle bowls, or a variety combo plate, everyone was extremely satisfied.

I think the only regret of that day may have been that we returned to the hotel too late and tired to stop at 21 Choices for the third night in a row.

March 16, 2006 - Linda Tien

Well well.. I think I've perhaps chosen the most uneventful day of our trip to write about. But that's nothing to complain about, since our spring break in California was far from being dull! Our morning started off with the usual run and breakfast, followed by a short practice. Since Day five was sandwiched between two hard matches (UC San Diego and University of Redlands), we kept our activities pretty light.

What is there to do in beautiful Claremont? After practice, we went to the Claremont Village, where we went shopping at the little boutique stores. Amy, Indu and I headed straight for the bead shop, where we mustered up our artistic powers to design our own necklaces. We definitely kept everyone else waiting, trying to finish them. After that, most of the team decided to go watch the Emory men's team play their match against the Redlands. A couple of us stayed behind at the hotel to log in some productive schoolwork time. Dinner was spent in the mall food court, and more shopping was accomplished by a few of us. For some reason, Day five ended without the team's ritual stop at 21 Choices. No worries, though - we were well rested to battle the University of Redlands the next day!

March 17, 2006 - Richelle Marasigan

Spring break in sunny California was going by too quickly, so we knew we had to make the most of it on our last full day. We eagerly packed up and drove to the University of Redlands where we were surprised to find a festive green water fountain by the courts reminding us of St. Patrick's Day. The weather was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and we were all pumped to dominate on the tennis courts. We grabbed some lunch and warmed up for the match suited up in our new sweatshirts and sweatpants specially shipped from Emory. They must have brought us luck because we won the match 6-3. After the match, we all went to dinner at an excellent Thai restaurant with Richie's parents who were our #1 fans throughout the whole trip. After dinner they said goodbye and we headed off to our last trip to 21 Choices (the best fro yo place ever!!!). It was sad to face the fact that it would be another whole year until we could have this tasty treat again. But, as usual, the flavors were amazing, and we left with our empty bowls wishing 21 Choices would move to Atlanta.

March 18, 2006 - Christine Ingoldsby

Our spring break had finally come to an end, as we packed up the cars and headed off to the airport. We were sad to be leaving California, and were reluctant to go back to the stresses of school and homework. The week was filled with competitive matches, shopping trips, lots of frozen yogurt, and a number of other memories that made the trip very enjoyable. The whole team had gained more experience on the tennis court, as well as bonded together during the entire week. The last day of the trip was the hardest for Jamie Chan as she battled the peak symptoms of the flu throughout the plane ride. The rest of the team tried to avoid the same fate by trying to stay away and drinking lots of Airborne to stay healthy. Unfortunately, a few days later half the team started getting sick with the same symptoms. Maybe this just shows how much we truly bond as a team.

April 4 , 2006 - Jamie Chan

Grab a snack to munch on while you read about our match against Depauw and our weekend tournament in Virginia. 

Emory v. Depauw

Saturday, April 1:  We had a great match against Depauw on Saturday.  We began our morning by having a team breakfast at Bagel Palace.  We fueled our bodies with omelets, bagels, hash browns, fruit, and water.  The rain pushed us indoors for our doubles matches where we went ahead 2-1.  Sam and Linda overcame a boisterous Depauw doubles team while Indu and Cristina likewise dominated their opponents.  The sun came out and dried up all the rain, and the itsy bitsy spider...oops! I got carried away...Thanks to the power of the sun, we were able to play our singles matches outdoors in the great Atlanta weather.  We soared to victory and defeated Depauw by a score of 5-4. 

Singles highlights of the day: Christine's valiant effort against her opponent that went to a super-tiebreaker for the match.  Linda's awesome fight against her worthy opponent's booming serve and big ground strokes.  Richelle's quick reactions at the net and her backhand volley winner on the last point of her match.           

Virginia Trip

Our tennis-filled weekend in Virginia was also filled with lots of yummy food, sour candy, laughter, warm hugs from parents, and rockin' out in the Armada! (not the Spanish one, though). 

Thursday, March23:  After practice on Thursday, we left Atlanta and flew in the tiny Roanoke airport that only had six gates.  The trip was much shorter than our 14 hour bus trip the year before.  We piled into the minivan and huge Nissan Armada and made our way to Lexington, VA.  On the way, we soon found out that Coach Amy likes driving behind high semi-trucks, while Coach Tommy likes to dominate the "radio game" by flipping through the stations until he finds a song he knows.  However, Indu scored a point in the game by correctly identifying a classical piece by Mozart.  You know you go to Emory when...you can correctly name a classical song and the composer on the radio.  Haha Go, Indu! 

Friday, March 24:  On Friday, our match was against Trinity University.  The cold Virginia weather was a shock for us warm-blooded Atlanta girls, but Coach Amy gave us hand warmers to supply us with a small bit of warmth.  Christine's "superstar" parents, older sister (who could've been Christine's twin), and vivacious brother brought us delicious apple cake, sugar cookies, fruit, and hearty cheering.  We also had the support of John and Fran (a.k.a. Mr. and Mrs. Moscato - Jen-nay's parents) at the match.  Lindsay Tiemeyer, an alum, also came to Virginia to cheer us on.  The singles matches were a fight, but we went down 4-2 going into doubles.  After a brief huddle, we were ready to bring it to the Trinity Tigers, but again fell short in all three doubles matches with a final score of 7-2.  The Tigers played well while the Eagles came up short.  Unfortunately, the wind beneath our wings was not enough to carry us to victory that day.      

Saturday, March 25:  Middlebury was next on our list as we were scheduled to play them on Saturday.  However, when we looked outside the window in the morning, it was snowing!  Therefore, all the matches were shortened to 8 game pro-sets for singles and doubles and would be played indoors.  While we were waiting to go on, we spent our time studying, watching "The Ring 2," sleeping, and munching on snacks.  For lunch, we fueled our bodies with yummy pizza, pasta, salad, soup, and sandwiches at a local pizza eatery.  Pumped and ready to play, we had a short 20 min. warm-up and began our doubles matches.  We filled "The Duchussois" (the name of the indoor court complex) with cheers of "Go, Emory!" and "Let's go, Eagles!" - we were obviously much more ready to fight for this match.  We went ahead 2-1 after the doubles matches and continued our domination with a final score of 6-2 over Middlebury.  Richelle silenced her opponent with a score of 8-6 while Linda also dominated her opponent 8-6.  In typical Indu-style, Indu quickly put away her opponent 8-1.  It felt great to soar to victory against Middlebury!       

Sunday, March 26:  Our final match was against Williams.  We played our doubles matches indoors due to the inclement weather and went ahead 2-1 with Sam and Linda clinching it for us in a nail-biting 8-6 victory.  In singles, half of us played indoors while the other half of us played outdoors.  This tested our ability to cheer each other on and keep ourselves pumped up without the help of our other teammates.  I'm happy to say that we passed the test with flying colors and defeated the purple cows! [Note: I am not calling the other team a bunch of cows.  The Eph (a purple cow) is the mascot of Williams.]  Sam fought through noxious fumes and finished her match outside "in the snow" along with Christine, while Linda, Richelle, and Indu dominated their opponents indoors.  We finished the match with a 7-2 victory, but didn't have time to rest because we had a plane to catch.  Our flight home was quick and we were glad to get back to the nice HOTlanta weather. 

Our weekend tournament in Virginia was a great team bonding experience and tested our mental and physical capabilities on the court.  We rebounded from our early loss to Trinity and battled like Emory warrior women to defeat Middlebury and Williams.  I'm looking forward to doing more battling with my teammates by my side.  Together, as a team, we can accomplish so much.

April 10 , 2006 - Cristina Arellano

This was a tough weekend for the Emory Womens Tennis Team. Our match on Saturday against Shorter College in Rome, Ga. was cancelled due to poor weather.

Sunday morning we woke up early and headed out to the courts at 9 a.m. We gave some tennis lessons to past summer campers. Sam Shapiro proved to be an excellent teacher and came up with some creative games for our happy campers.

At 11:00 a.m. we played against the power-house Div. II team Armstrong Atlantic from Savannah, Ga. Emory battled hard in doubles and continued to do so in singles. Armstrong's team was very good, very tough, very fast and very foreign. Their team was comprised of 7 Europeans, 1 American and an Assistant coach from Budapest, Hungary (which I was excited about).

The final score was 9-0 for the visiting team, but throughout the entire match we held ourselves high and fought hard till the last point.

Next up was Spelman College at 3:00 p.m. This time, the final score was the exact opposite of the previous match. It ended in a 9-0 victory for Emory. Emory won all of its doubles and singles. At the end of the day, we were very happy with our results; an empty bagel basket, no more muddy-buddies, one apple left, sunburns and lost keys. (By the way, if anyone has seen a pair of keys lying around the outdoor tennis courts, feel free to contact me)

Next up is Sewanee on Tuesday.

May 9, 2006 - Samantha Shapiro

This was a rewarding weekend for the Emory Women's Tennis Team. Not only did we have the satisfaction of beating rival, University of the South, but we also get to travel to Santa Cruz to compete in the quarterfinals of the NCAA National Championships.

We arrived in Sewanee, Tennessee on Friday afternoon, and went to the courts to practice. After practice, we went out to dinner at the only restaurant in about a 10-mile radius, and slept at a hotel called the Smokehouse.

On Saturday afternoon, we played Rhodes. Our team won this match pretty easily. We won all three doubles and two singles matches. After the match, we went to the Sewanee cafeteria, which was the one of the most amazing cafeterias we have ever seen. We probably all made about 3 trips a piece, due to our complete shock of what they had to offer. Later we returned to our studies in the hotel room.

On Sunday afternoon we played University of the South, a team we previously lost to. First, from past experience, we knew that this was going to be a tough match. They probably had over 100 fans cheering them on, as well as a rowdy boys team, who quite frequently used the term "double slide." However, we were pumped for this match. We had been practicing for this moment for the last month. We all had our matching tattoos, swoop (aka Tommy) came to cheer us on, as well as a few other Emory fans.

When we started the match, it was very dark and foggy out. However, they still had us play outside. One doubles and three doubles finished their respective matches very quickly, while number two doubles was in a tight match. We were all cheering on the final doubles match, when a really funny thing happened. Off to the side of the court a little girl was playing with a dog, which was probably her size. All of a sudden, it starts humping her! She kept trying to run away from it, but it would not stop. Out of all the seriousness that was taking place in the match, it was hard to control our laughter. In the end, number two doubles pulled out the match with some crazy swinging volleys and overheads, despite the taunting boys acting like monkeys on the fence. After doubles finished, we started playing our singles; until it got so foggy that we could barely see anymore. So, we had to go inside and finish playing. Now, instead of being spread out on six courts, we were left to three courts. It was like a jungle with all those people in the small tennis center. However, we were pumped and ready to dominate. Both Linda and Cristina played amazing and won the final two points for our team! Winning this match was a big accomplishment for us because we had been practicing to play Sewanee for so long, and now victory was on our side. We were able to overcome the obnoxious fans, crazy weather, humping dogs, and lob ball tennis in order to advance to the next round of nationals. Despite the fact that there was no fat free frozen yogurt or Starbucks in Sewanee, TN, our team still had a great time! We cannot wait to dominate in Santa Cruz!!!!!!!