Intro's....and On the Road Again.....

Welcome to the UNCW Women's Tennis Blog! Every week or two, a player, coach, or guest writer is going to write an entry updating anyone and everyone about your Lady Seahawks. Our team has a current record of 4 -2 and our season is about to get very busy with some BIG matches coming up!
Let me first introduce myself, your "first Seahawk blog writer". My name is Hartley Collins and I am currently a senior. I absolutely love being on this team! We have two awesome coaches and a group of girls that I consider a family away from home. I am currently attempting to come to grips with the fact that graduation is right around the corner and my days as a current Seahawk are quickly dwindling (whether I am ready for them to or not)!
This past Sunday, our team returned from a five day road trip where we faced three very tough opponents; Presbyterian College, Furman, and UNC Charlotte. I think many of my teammates would agree in saying that taking road trips is one of the things we look forward to the most; marked by exciting tennis, great food, and lots of funny stories.
So let me start from the beginning of our trip, Wednesday afternoon, where we loaded up our 15 passenger van and headed for the road. Our van was crammed packed with rackets, shoes, bags, two coaches, seven players, and a big box of snacks and goodies (compliments of Coach). Let me introduce you to my teammates as if you, yourself, were riding along in the van with us! So grab a seat and make sure to buckle up, John “I love to make eye contact with you in my rear view mirror while we talk” Ware is driving.
I am not sure who started this "tradition", but we always sit in the van according to your year in school...seniors in the front row and freshman in the very back. In the front of the van with the entire first row to herself, you can find senior, Kayla Schwenk. She will most likely have a bag of pretzels in one hand and her I-Phone in the other clicking away; sending an email or updating her calendar! Kayla is one of our top players on the team and is a great senior leader. Behind Kayla, in the second row, you will see junior Lindsay Leblang. She is sitting next to none other than yours truly…lucky girl! In preparation for our match, Lindsay is probably talking about the teams we are about to face. With that crazy memory of hers, she will remember that she played a girl on Furman's team when she was 14. In her story she will be able to tell you the exact score, what the weather was like, her percentage of first serves and what flavor Gatorade she was drinking that day. Oh yeah…she also just remembered Kayla was also in that tournament, playing three courts down in the blue shirt!
In the third row sits junior, Chelsea Kahle and sophomore, Casey Dashiell. Chelsea is reading from a Microbiology book. I glance over my seat and attempt to look along, and my head immediately starts to hurt as I read words that don’t seem to be written in English. Chelsea is one of the most driven people I know and with that brain of hers she will make a very good doctor one of these days... I can see it now: "Dr. Kahle” performing clutch bone surgeries, grunting in between each incision. Chelsea is currently coming back from a stress fracture in her foot and is doing one heck of a job. I am very lucky to be her doubles partner and let me tell you, she is moving like Apollo Ohno on skates out there! Chels is coming back full force, so watch out folks.
Sitting next to Chelsea, is little Casey Dashielle, otherwise known as "Dash". Although only coming in at a whopping 5'4, Dash plays like she is 6'5, with a huge heart and lots of determination. On this van ride, or any other, you will see her eating her fifth peanut butter and jelly of the day. She also has a huge smile on her face because, being a big sophomore and all, she is finally out of the last row!!!
Speaking of the last row, who is that way back there??? No way would I forget the two Christina's! Sophomore Christina Lee and our only freshman, Christina Riley are chillin' in their seats! Sharing a pair of head phones between the two of them, they are bobbin' their heads in unison and singing along word for word. Christina Lee, aka C-Lee, is extremely laid back and easy going. She answers almost every question with a simple, drawn out, "goooood" and when telling stories she uses words like that’s "so cool!" or "awesome!" It makes you feel like your story is the best ever told! Next to C-Lee is Riley, our freshman from Indianapolis. She is a huge Colts fan and loves her some Peyton Manning. (Hey Riley, quick question: how bout' them Saints?)
And don’t forget the two coaches! Coach Garrity is sitting in the passenger seat, reading a sports magazine and occasionally jotting notes down in her infamous black notebook.... whatcha writin' in there Coach??? Assistant coach, John Ware, is “driving”, if that’s what you call it. He is drinking his all-natural-vegan smoothie, changing the song on his I-Pod, and talking to Coach...all at the same time! But hey, he gets us there safe and sound so that’s all that matters!
The four hour trip is over before you know it and we pull up to our first stop, Christina Lee's house. There to greet us, and our big appetites, are the Lee's! Mr. Lee cooked us up an awesome dinner! It was called Frogsmore Stew. Unless there were some unknown frogs in that huge pot of his, I am not sure where the name came from. But other than the frogs it has eggs, shrimp, sausage, onions, potatoes, and corn. It is cooked in an enormous pot (almost the size of Riley’s racket bag) and when it is done it is dumped on top of the newspaper-covered table. Then everyone digs in, no silverware required...it was pretty cool and very delicious. A big thanks to the Lee's for hosting us! Also at the dinner table were my parent's. Only living a few minutes away from the Lee's they made the trip over, bringing some serious desserts. Brownies, cupcakes, and ice cream! Yummm...unfortunately Coach, Kayla, and I gave up desserts for Lent, so we missed out on that. But I heard they were pretty tasty, so thanks mom! They were so good C-Lee even snuck the leftover cupcakes in her bag for a hotel treat for the next few nights. Our Coaches didn’t know about that one. After a delicious dinner and some good conversation we all got a good night sleep in preparation for Presbyterian.
We arrived at Presbyterian ready and excited to play! It was very, very windy, but we took care of business and won 7-0. You can ask Casey about the details of the doubles matches because she was intently watching every point. She even let out a very odd and loud sound when Chelsea barely got to a ball. Other than noisy little Dash, the highlight of the match was Kayla's victory in singles, winning 11-9 in a third set breaker. Her experience and poise definitely played a large role in that win. Yeah Schwenk!
Next up we traveled to Greenville, NC to take on the Furman Paladins...what is a Paladin?? If anyone knows please share! On Friday night before we faced Furman, we ate an awesome dinner at a Mexican restaurant, called Chicora Alley. Along with our burritos and tacos, we watched curling on the Olympics. We were trying to figure out the point and/or the rules of the sport...we still don’t know! Next we made an ice-cream and coffee stop at Spill the Beans (so good!) and walked out on a bridge that was hanging in mid-air. I’m not kidding, it was a bridge that curved around and was somehow suspended in the air. Seeing that I am terrified of heights, I didn’t ask too many questions, but it was definitely the coolest bridge I have ever seen!
After all the food and fun, Saturday morning came around and we got back to being match ready and quickly became focused. Furman is a very talented and experienced team and we all knew that they would be our toughest opponent of the weekend. It certainly helped to have three noisy moms there to support us, all with hot chocolates in hand! Mrs. Schwenk made the trip all the way from Florida, so it’s safe to say she was probably chugging her hot chocolate in attempts to stay warm! We started out the day winning a much deserved doubles point! At the number two spot, Lindsay and C-Lee took care of business winning 8-6 and gave the first point to the Hawks! Chelsea and I found ourselves down 6-2 before buckling down and making a big comeback. We tied it up at 8-8 before losing a close one, 7-5 in a tiebreaker. So with the overall score at 1-1, it came down to the first court. With everyone watching, Kayla and Riley stepped up big time and played some great doubles. They came up with a clutch victory, winning 7-3 in a breaker!
So with the Seahawks up 1-0 and everyone pumped up, we headed into singles. Just like doubles, all of the singles matches were just as intense, filled with great playing and frequent "come-ons!" and "let’s go Hawks!". As all the matches were wrapping up we found ourselves all tied up. The overall match score was tied at 3-3 with Riley and Linds putting up the two big wins for the Hawks. It came down to the first court, where you saw Christina Lee in a BATTLE. As Coach Ware likes to say Christina is a "freak of nature" when she is on the court. She runs down every single ball as if the ball was a Luna Bar ready to be eaten (flavor: Nuts Over Chocolate…of course!). But seriously there is nothing she can’t get to! The match lasted nearly four hours and Christina left absolutely everything out on that court, never giving up! Although it’s unfortunate, there had to be a loser to the match. Christina lost a heartbreaker, with the score of 6-4 in the third. So the Hawks came up a little short, losing 4-3. But we had a heck of day with no regrets!
After the match we drove back to Charlotte where we all hit the pillows pretty hard! Sunday morning we woke up to our final day of a long trip. We faced another very tough opponent, UNC Charlotte. In the previous 3 years we have beaten the 49ers with two competitive 4-3 victories, so we knew it was going to take some tough play to win. Although many of us, especially C-Lee, were sore and tired, we were determined to finish the weekend on a high note and leave with a victory. And we did just that, winning with an overall score of 6-1. The UNCC match was highlighted by the great play of Christina “don’t serve that to my sick forehand return again!” Riley. She dominated at number 3 singles; winning 6-0, 6-0.
Overall, we had a VERY successful weekend finishing with 2 wins and 1 loss. Next up is ODU and then a weeklong trip to Florida were we will play Nova Southeastern, go see Mickey at Disney World, and hope to get some much needed sun…Chels put your socks back on, your feet are blinding me girl! We will be staying at Kayla’s house. We all can’t wait...so see you soon Schwenk family! Kayla is next up to post a blog about our trip to her home-town. So make sure you check back to get the latest news on your Seahawk Lady Netters.
LET’S GO HAWKS!