UNCW INVITE.........FINALS........and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Hello everyone! Freshman Angie Sekely here writing to you to finish off the fall season. After ending with our amazing Halloween tournament at home, we only had a few practices left before it was time to crack our books open and move into our home, away from home, away from home… or better known as the library. Fortunately, we still managed to share some hard work and laughs with each other to blow off some steam during exam time. Picture day, for instance, was definitely something to be remembered. We had the chance to wear our new outfits and all of us were extremely excited… even if it was only for ten minutes. Everything was running smoothly until Coach told us our next group picture would be taken in the tree in front of the training room. That’s right… not in front of the tree.. IN the tree. We all ran to it as fast as we could and started climbing like little monkeys. Casey got the highest, but she went a little too crazy so we had to reposition her a few times in order to get the perfect shot, I cant wait to see how it turns out! Getting down from the tree was a lot harder than it looked and Riley managed to cut her finger open along the way (I hope that has healed)! Anyways, a little while after that, Coach had a Christmas dinner for us at her house with the most delicious food, I could not stop eating!!


After dinner we had a present exchange and it got a little out of control, but everyone made great gifts so in the end we were all happy! Each year everyone brings one gift - BUT your gift has to be made. You cannot just buy something - so everyone's creativity is put to the test - and this year was one of the best!!



But then Coach threatened us with an extra two weeks of morning madness because we disobeyed her wishes and got her a gift!!... Lets hope she doesn’t remember that for next year! Lindsay and Chelsea’s peppermint chocolate and Casey’s fudge were the cherries on top of a perfect night. It was just what we needed before entering a world of no sleep, no “vegetating” and 100% exams. With a few struggles during the last push of the semester (such as Olga rolling off her bed and getting five staples in her head at four in the morning), I’m happy to say, that we all survived and cannot wait to start the spring. Ill leave everyone with one final story from the fall: In one of our last hits, I noticed two huge crows flying over my head so I took a moment to point them out to Casey, Lindsay and Riley. “It’s a sign” Lindsay says as Riley, Casey and I look at each other with confused faces. “Sign for what?!” Casey says to have Lindsay answer “That we are going to win CAA’s this year”. With all of this hard work and unity underneath our belts, I can definitely visualize (as John always tells us to do) this and hope that it will come true. Our team has had a great fall and has fuelled up for an even better spring. Lets go Hawks!! We hope you will come out to some matches this spring...... our schedule is posted on our website at www.uncwsports.com and would love to have you come out and cheer for the Seahawks!!! We THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO TO SUPPORT US ALL YEAR LONG!! WE APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH!!
Many blessings to you for a Happy Holiday and in the New Year......

UNCW Halloween Invite.... and Go Canada???

Hello Seahawk Fans! This is FRESHMEAT, Kelly Cameron, or better known as GloZell. I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween! But if you are like me, you’re looking forward to this so called Wagsgiving that all the upperclassmen have been talking about!

Coming back home from a good tournament at Virginia Tech, Coach and J-Dub were already thinking ahead towards the Halloween Invite. They turned around to ask everyone in the van for a t-shirt idea but no one was awake. J-Dub thought of, “Trick or Treat. Smell my feet. Come to Wilmington and get beat!” Catchy but not quite. We knew that the fall season was coming to an end quickly and hard work in these final weeks was going to be necessary. We continued to work hard, always being reminded that our hard work now would all pay off for our upcoming season.

The Seahawks have started a new warm up technique for our serving arms. We loosen up our arms and play a little game of catch with a football. Casey Dash is an expert at throwing a football and laughed when she saw the way I gripped it. Thank you Casey, no wonder I always threw to the right! Chelsea and I decided to have a little game of catch that only ended with the ball over the fence. Chelsea started walking back, farther, and farther until she was about 3 courts away from me. I thought I should move up a little bit but I was wrong. Chelsea threw the ball way over my head and way over the fence. Anyone want Chelsea on their football team?

The Halloween Invite had arrived and it began with an awesome warm up playlist from my IPod. It lasted a whole ten minutes after Whip My Hair by Will Smith’s 9 year old daughter almost blew out the speakers and then my IPod eventually dying. No worries, Lindsay’s pre-speech and our loud cheer gets us ready for action. Freshmen, Angie Sekely and Olga Blank were anxious to play their first home match as a Seahawk. They represented us well both by winning their flights in the tournament. They weren’t the only ones, also Clee, Leblang, and Dash picked up a flight win. Overall, the Seahawks had one of the best tournaments and this has only pumped us up more for the season.

A special congrats to Dash and Riles for coming back to win a match where they were down 2-6. This is where the Seahawks separate from others. Our fight. Our heart. I was trying to think of what gave everyone so much energy for the weekend and I have come up with two reasons. First, is the thought of our upcoming season and Coach’s emails that countdown to our first match in the spring that gives us all chills. Second, Reilly, we all know why those feet were moving so fast…don’t fall asleep he might get you! The several Halloween terror movies we watched and screamed at. Well everyone screaming but Clee of course.

We had a lot of support this weekend and we would all like to thank the parents, friends, and fans that came out! A special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Sekely for the AWESOME CANADIAN MITTENS! We love them! Also to the Dashiell family for always being so supportive and bringing yummy treats that Emily and I have no problem consuming!
Cameron. Out. :)

1st Road Trip.... Virginia Tech here we come!!

Welcome back loyal Seahawk fans! This is UPPERCLASSMAN Casey Dashiell and I am here to tell you about our first road trip of the year! We started our journey Wednesday night as we left the monsoon in Wilmington and headed towards Raleigh. We had a packed van but were missing Chelsea and Emily due to injuries…it’s never the same without y’all! I’ve never seen two freshman more excited about sitting in the back of the van than Kelly and Angie. Somehow Olga worked the system and road in the front seat with Lindsay, why weren’t we ever smart enough to do that?! Riley made out too, having her own seat to herself…something’s going wrong in this world! C Lee and I fitted together like a puzzle piece to sleep away the time. We hit at NC State Wednesday night and as we walked into NC State’s facility, it was hard to miss a three foot picture of coach’s face painted on the wall for all time singles wins. We then road to Chapel Hill and stayed at Coach’s parents’ house where we devoured some food, stared in disbelief at the humongous trophy case packed full, and pass out on the comfiest beds.
On Thursday, we got up early and headed the rest of the way to Virginia Tech, playing the train game the whole way! None of the freshman nor Riley (or Chelsea!) has gotten it yet, but they are troopers, even asking if they can take a train when they’re on changeovers. None of us had been to Blacksburg before so we didn’t know what to expect. However, being beach girls, the mountains weren’t exactly what we wanted to see. We soon found ourselves riding past cow pasture after cow pasture. When we arrived at VA Tech to practice Thursday, it’s safe to say we were all a little homesick. Besides the cow pastures, cold weather, and orange and maroon courts, there was “cow dung surrounding all the courts” according to Ware.
Friday morning came early for everyone, but everyone came out sharp. We had a long day at the courts, eight to eight, and we devoured some food when we got back to the hotel. Unfortunately, Saturday morning seemed to come even faster than Friday and it was tough getting out of bed with our sore bodies. Saturday, everyone battled and played really well. We were definitely the loudest out of every team there. No one can beat Kelly’s cheer for “Big O” while watching Olga’s match! Perhaps Kelly’s other great moment this trip was when we were trying to come up with a new cheer for before our matches. Kelly thought we should cheer “C-E-A, C-E-A, Hawks, Hawks, Hawk”… think about it! Angie had said the night before that she wanted to run in her matches, and she did. You’ve never seen anyone like to run as this girl…that’ll soon change! In between doubles and singles Coach and Ware’s competitiveness came out. With an open court, they battled away at mini tennis, first to 7, no 10, no 15, to see who could win and have bragging rights. Ware had a little advantage by making Coach laugh so hard she almost peed her pants.


We finished up early on Saturday, about five o’clock, so we headed to a restaurant called Cabo Fish Tacos where we watched NC State play VA Tech. We were all pulling for State, except for John of course. Even though we were pulling for State, we weren’t about to verbally show it since they were playing Virginia Tech and we were AT Virginia Tech so we kept our cheering internal..…except for Coach. The restaurant was packed with VA Tech fans yelling and cheering at every play, while Coach sat in the middle of the restaurant yelling “Go State.” Maybe next time!
We also had another outing on Saturday - this one meaningful -- Coach took us to see the Memorial of the students that lost their lives during the horrible shooting at Virginia Tech 3 years ago. To see so many names listed - knowing they were someone's family member, friend and even a teammate - put in a very clear perspective that life really is too short sometimes - - we are so blessed to be healthy active young women surrounded by loving friends, family and teammates and really lucky our only worry that weekend was if someone had a better serve or forehand than we did. It was a very memorable outing for our team. Stay strong Virginia Tech!


That night, C Lee, Linds, and I decided that we should try out the hot tub on our sore bodies. The jets felt great, but if it helped with the soreness, I don’t want to know what I would’ve felt like without using it! Once again, our alarms sounded off long before we wanted them too, and it was a struggle to get out of bed. We all hobbled out to the courts early to get a good warm-up before we were to dominate the day. We ended the tournament strong, everyone “tooah up their opponents,” especially Angie who ran herself to victory in the C Flight for singles!
All in all, we were happy to leave Blacksburg where C Lee’s thought of “what if this is the end—of our lives,” has frightened Lindsay to death, and where we were happy to leave the orange and maroon courts, cow manure, and 37 degree weather behind and head back to the beach! A special thanks to the Cameron’s and my parents for their endless support and goodies they supplied!

Welcome back Seahawk fans! Hope everyone had an enjoyable, relaxing summer break. I know I sure did, but now it’s back to the grind! I am sophomore, Riileeeeey, and I am no longer the solo freshman and no longer have to ride in the back of the van!
Anyway, the Seahawks began their preseason training the first week of school with some “Morning Madness.” For those of you that don’t know, this is also known as “hell week” among the players. We work out at 6 every morning along with practice in the afternoons. The work outs usually consist of running, swimming, bike madness, and agilities. Much to mine and Lindsay’s dismay, however, the pool was closed this year so Coach had to find other alternatives for us. One of these was a campus bike ride on the last day. Between seeing John pull up with his bike just chilling on the top of his car, watching Lindsay trying to finagle every curve after not riding a bike since she was 7, and Coach teasing us by riding ever so close to Wag(the dining hall where we could SMELL breakfast), this was easily the best day of Morning Madness ever. However, the whole week wasn’t this easy. We had several great days of practice that resulted in many sore and hurting bodies. This created the perfect opportunity to introduce the freshmen to the infamous ice bath! Apparently Emily and Kelly refused to get in their first time. Not because of the freezing water, but because there were “boys wearing speedos in it.” Come on freshmen, you don’t want to “wheel and deal” with boys in speedos?!?!

Speaking of freshmen, we have 4 new faces on the team this year. Emily Warren is from Goldsboro, NC, Kelly Cameron from Hilton Head, Olga Blank from Israel, and Angie Sekeley from Canada. This lively group has already made great additions to our team both on and off the court. Angie has educated us on all the Canadian slang and the newest dance moves on youtube. Kelly is constantly entertaining us with her impersonations of people, her all time favorite being the youtube sensation/comedian, Glozell. Kelly has also been deemed the team photographer. You will rarely see her without her massive camera dangling around her neck when she’s not playing or without a big smile on her face. You also rarely will see her without her sidekick Emily. As country as she may sound, Emily is quite the rapper. Give her a beat and she can rap just about anything. Olga has been a real trooper, battling injuries and multiple nonsense questions from people. She has informed us many times that yes, she DOES know who Britney Spears is!

As for the returning Seahawks, we have a new “Chelsea” on the team this year. Maybe it was moving in with the Chelsea that did it, but baby Dash has turned into a studying MACHINE… probably why she only missed 2 questions on our first anatomy test. Chelsea survived her MCAT’s this summer and is still as studious as ever, studying for all her classes in which we can’t even pronounce the name of the course. According to Emily she is a genius of “the sciences of the body.” Christina Lee, our team mathematician, is taking math and more math this semester.

This past weekend the Seahawks competed in their first tournament of the year at the Landfall Invitational. We had beautiful weather; everyone competed well, and we had great fan support! It was good to see everyone’s families again and see many faces from the community. Some highlights from the tournament included Christina Lee reaching the finals of the A flight. Freshman Kelly Cameron also had a great tournament beating one of Virginia Tech’s top players in a third set tiebreak in the second round, while wanting to throw up at the same time. Another highlight from the tournament was mine and Casey’s first round doubles win over a Furman team that included Katherine Oudin, Melanie Oudin’s twin sister. However, to Casey and me, the first name is irrelevant; all that matters is we beat one of those Oudins! The tournament ended on a good note, with everyone cheering Lindsay on, in her normal 10-8 in the 3rd set tiebreak 2 1\2 hour match, win over a tough another Furman player.

It was good to see all the freshmen in action and the returning players. Overall, it has been a great start to a new season, and it looks like some very good things are in the works for the Lady Seahawks! We will be back in action next weekend as we travel to the Virginia Tech Invitational. Hopefully we’ll get to see some of you there! Until next time…peace and blessings!

Another Season Begins....May 2011, we're coming for you!!!

WELCOME TO THE 2010 - 2011 SEASON FOR THE LADY NETTERS - - We have new faces, new challenges and a whole new set (no pun intended) of goals to accomplish!

Every two weeks or so we'll have a member of our program update and enlighten you on our weekly achievements, a comical story or two and things to look forward to in the near future.

We hope you will enjoy following our journey - through a very competitive fall season, surviving the 10 days of finals before off to the holiday breaks and then to return for our spring season - - hopefully one that lasts well into May!!!

Thank you for your continued support and for being a big part of our program - - there is no one looking from the outside in - - you are all a very important part of Seahawk Tennis. And, as always, LET'S GOOOOOOO HAWKS!!!!!!
~ Coach Garrity

Honoring the Netters....and esp. Kay, Fuenn & Hart

Welcome back everyone! It’s been awhile since the last blog by C-Lee, so I’m here to recap what’s been happening the last couple of weeks. My name’s Casey Dashiell and I’m finally a Junior! No more underclassman here…we’ve made it Christina! After CAA’s, we had two more days of practice without the seniors, which was really weird. We all remember Coach saying that after CAA’s she would teach us how to hit a tweener, but her idea of practice was a little different. She had her mind set on conditioning, but we just pulled a "Hartley Collins" and vetoed that idea(since we won a challenge in practice and got to get out of a day of conditioning.) Sorry Coach! After those two days of practice we weren’t allowed to practice anymore because there’s no practice allowed rule a week before exams. This left us all with a lot of time, something we’re not used to. So for the weekend we went to Christina’s beach house in Pawley’s Island as a one last road trip all together. Though the weather could’ve been better and the sun could’ve actually come out, we still had a relaxing, fun weekend filled with some smore’s! Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Lee for letting us use your beach house. We’ll be back next year for sure!
We were all hoping to come back to Wilmington with a nice tan because we had the Student Athlete Awards Banquet on Monday, April 26th. Even though we arrived there with sock tan lines unlike anyone else, we were ready to rack up some awards. The food was amazing and we were first in line of course. Team awards were given out followed by some special awards. We were surprised when they announce that we had won the Team Leadership Award. Kayla went up to accept it and we were betting that she was going to have to make a speech, but she rush across that stage like she was running a sprint in practice.
Next up for all of us were exams. Like always, it feels like a lot of waiting around for exams to start, so where else is it better to study than at the beach?! We all got rid of our tan lines before our banquet on Saturday night. A big thank you for everyone coming! It was such a nice way to celebrate the seniors and see our alums and upcoming freshmen Kelly and Emily! The banquet was a big hit with the 30 minute video thanks to Joe, along with team awards and the Senior speeches. Fuenning seemed to knock hers out with laughter as Hart and K tried to hold back the tears and shaking (that’s okay K)! The night ended with the gifts we got Coach and Ware, each a blanket made of UNCW Tennis T-shirts we had, along with the Senior gifts we got them, scrapbooks and signet rings. The seniors then surprised each of us with a special little gift suited for each of us individually.




The night was a great way to end the year, and though it was sad, Christina and I look forward to getting out of the back seat of the van! With finals wrapping up, I know everyone will be checking their grades hoping they’ll be out of study hall for another year. Next up is Christina Riley! Have a great summer!

Last Road Trip of the Year.....

Hello everyone! This is sophomore Christina Lee reporting to the UNCW Women’s Tennis Blog, woohoo!! This past weekend the Lady Netter’s had a tough battle at the CAA conference tournament held in Norfolk, VA. Thursday morning we packed up the van and headed off on our four hour trip with Jimmy John subs that were graciously picked up by Coach Ware. The van that we received was a little ancient, but we worked it out with the help of Chelsea Kahle’s superb packing skills. Oh, I almost forgot to throw in…HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARGERY!! It just so happened to be our wonderful trainer’s, Margery Ellis’s, birthday, and Barb surprised her with some cupcakes that we all got to share. The van ride conversations consisted of Chelsea Kahle’s thirty year plan to become a surgeon and freshman Christina Riley claiming that she would buzz her hair off if we win the tournament (just kidding of course!).
We arrived in Norfolk with just enough time to shower and dress up for the annual CAA Awards Banquet. Everyone cleaned up very nicely and this year John Ware even remembered to bring dress pants for the event, go Ware! The food was so good and our team was racking up multiple plates each from the buffet table. Every year we enjoy observing the creative clothing choices at the banquet, like the rainbow patterned pants that one player was sporting. After eating, the Seahawks racked up the awards with six of our men’s players being recognized in the CAA all-conference men’s team along with Kayla Schwenk, Lindsay Leblang and myself being named as CAA All-Conference women’s players.
Friday morning the Lady Netter’s woke up early to support our Seahawk men’s team as they played James Madison. With the help of Casey Dashiell, who is from Norfolk, we arrived to the match and watched our men win the doubles point. Next, we headed off to get in a good warm up in before our first match against Old Dominion University. During our warm up Coach thought it would be a good idea to find us some coconut water that we could drink before our match because it contains an insane amount of electrolytes and would help us stay hydrated. Like anyone would do, she put GNC into her navigation system and drove to the closest one. As she was about to pay, the cashier asked for her military id. After informing the man that she was not part of the military, two huge military guys walked up on either side of her and questioned her. She was later escorted off the premises, and we all had a good laugh and joked that coach got arrested buying coconut milk.
Our next stop was good ol’ faithful Panera Bread. I’m sure no one on our team will ever eat there once they graduate just because of the amount of times we’ve eaten it on the road, haha. One interesting lunch conversation that stuck to me was John talking about his third grade love named Gladis. One day at recess, Gladis told Ware that if he kissed her, she’d give him a candy bar, and it was fate from there.
When we arrived to Old Dominion, we met up with some of our cheerleaders, aka Mrs. Dashiell, Mrs. Collins, Mrs. Lee, and Mr. Dashiell. The matches were behind schedule so while we were waiting, everyone heated and stretched, and even got in some much needed massages from Margery. She rubbed my arm and it felt sooo good. During this time we were all supposed to drink one of the coconut waters, which became a bit of a dilemma. Although champs like our upper classman were able to chug them down, Casey, Riley and I had a bit of trouble. You see, plain coconut water is not the most delicious thing to put in your mouth, so it took us a little time and even some mixing with Gatorade to do the trick.
Soon enough, it was time for the Seahawks to take the courts. Everyone was so pumped and energetic that it was hard not to be intense. Kahle and Collins with an 8-5 win at three doubles were the first off the courts. After an exciting battle at the second spot, Leblang and I clenched the doubles point with a 9-7 win.
Next up was singles, after three tough losses for the Seahawks at the 1, 2 and 3 spot the match was moved inside because it got dark. The three matches inside were with Dashiell at 6, Kahle and 5, and Leblang at 4. After a nerve wrecking second set tie-breaker, Dash pulled it out with a 6-4, 7-6 (6) win making the overall score 2-3. At this point the atmosphere was so intense! Everyone was yelling and trying to support our Seahawks who were still battling it out on the court. Unfortunately, some Old Dominion fans had very poor sportsmanship and even had the nerve to take a flash picture of Leblang as she was serving, and our fans let them know how we felt. Even through the distractions, Leblang battled like a champ after being on the court for 3+ hours, but unfortunately came up short in the end, ending the match right as Kahle was serving on match point on her court. Everyone left everything out on the court, and ODU barely got by us with a few points that went their way. Every year we get closer and closer to beating this team, and next year the Seahawks will the name ontop!
It was now around 10:00, and we all regrouped at the Dash’s house to have a delicious and much needed meal. As usual Mrs. Dashiell went above and beyond with the spread of food that was waiting for us at her house. Mrs. Collins also surprised us even more with the different selections of deserts that she made for us. Thank you mama’s!!
The next morning we headed back to Wilmington, and everyone was obsessed with a Bubble Wrap game on Ware’s iPhone. Basically the point is to pop as many bubbles on the screen as you can in thirty seconds. With us being the competitive people that we are, let’s just say the bubble popping got pretty intense. Also, Christina Riley and I sit in the back of the van, and we concluded that the suspension system in that van was non-existent because our heads hit the ceilings a couple of times. Through everything, everyone had a great time and we’re all ready for our Women’s Tennis Banquet being held on May 1st! Let’s Go Hawks!!!