Tennis is a sport known for its strength, agility, speed, and technique. Each player of the Liberty Patriots Tennis Team consists of these qualities and brings an effortless touch to the sport. In other words, they make it look easy.

Photographed by Kennedy Johnson. Talk about versatility!
Tennis can be a great gateway to making new friends and exploring new opportunities. Kennedy, a junior here at Liberty, mentioned how she joined through her friends. “A lot of my friends said they were doing tennis as their high school sport. I played it when I was younger, so I always thought it would be fun to go back to
tennis, and I loved it.” Johnson joined the team in her freshman year and has been playing ever since alongside her teammate Rachel Crittle. Crittle shared a similar experience in which she joined because “my friends sort of influenced me to join. They weren’t in tennis, but they thought it would be cool if I joined. So for fun, I did.”

Photo by Kennedy Johnson
These young ladies go through an intensive and well-rounded practice every day. Their routine consists of stretches and running for warmups, followed by 15 minutes of serving the ball back and forth. “Then we do short court and full court rallies with a partner. Then it ends with mock

matches or whatever we need to work on,” said Kennedy.

The young ladies were asked about words of advice they would give anyone interested in joining the tennis team, to which they said that tennis requires much practice. “Tennis is a skill you could just learn. Just because you’re not good at it first doesn’t mean you’ll ever be good at it. It’s a fun social sport, and you’ll always make new friends, you learn a lot from being a teammate.”

These girls have an eventful season going for them with much hope and the opportunity for success. According to Crittle and Johnson, Championships are definitely attainable for the team. They continue to pour time into this sport and their very best.