On Saturday Oct. 25, NT achieved its 12th tennis state championship win. The team secured 33 points in total, with all six girls advancing to the quarterfinals. Ingrid Fiedler finished 5th in singles, Ava Katz and Lily Hermann secured 4th in doubles, and Julia Ludwig finished 3rd in singles. It wasn’t an easy feat.
“My fourth round match in the quarters was against Lucy Stein,” Ingrid Fiedler says. “She just made a lot of balls…that was a really tough match, and it was about four hours, so it was really long. But after that, I had to turn around right away and play a girl from Stevenson who was our biggest competition.”
The quick turnaround was more than stressful. But with help from coaches, her parents, and teammates, Fiedler was able to help secure the last points needed in order to win state.
“All the coaches are really big in it,” Fiedler adds. “They all push you and make you realize…it’s for the team.”
Winning the state championship is always an uphill battle, regardless of the sport. The players overcame moments of difficulty before, during, and after their matches.
“I would say my toughest moment was probably when I was in the quarter finals. We won the first set, and then something changed in my mind. I just got really negative,” Lily Hermann says. “My partner was there for me, and she got my energy going back up, and then we got through it. We ended up winning the match. We won the first set, and then lost the second, because I wasn’t in the right headspace, and then we came back on the third.”
State is the biggest challenge the girls face throughout the season; everything they’ve accomplished leads up to those three days. The team follows several traditions to help ease their nerves. Hermann shares a tradition:
“The most important thing is, we all meditate in someone’s basement…we have the YouTube meditation going, and that calms us down.”
Through their wins and losses, the girls have supported each other by uplifting spirits and providing comfort when it’s needed. Every year, the team has bonding events that provide an opportunity to get to know each other. A trip to Edwardsville is one of their favorites:
“Oh, that’s always a really fun one, and it’s at the beginning of the season,” Hermann recounts. “So it kind of builds the team relationships early on, because it’s a six or seven or hour car ride down there, and we’re all in these big buses, so we have a lot of time stuck together.”
Fiedler shares a similar memory:
“It’s really good to bond at the beginning of the season. Just to take the bus out there, stay at the hotel and have fun,” Fiedler says.
Winning state was the perfect ending to their season. “It’s a feeling of wonderfulness,” says head coach Jerry Karzen. “A little sense of relief, because I knew we had the ability to do it, but we weren’t the only team that had the ability to do it…it was a matter of who was going to play well, and I’m glad it was New Trier.”