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Women’s Tennis

Coach’s Corner

Year: Fall 2008 | Spring 2008 | 2007

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NJCAA National Tournament

The Women’s Tennis team just finished fourth in the NJCAA National Tournament. After a challenging week of play, the Stars were able to post their best finish ever at the National event. Over thirty teams participated, and three of the Stars’ team members were recognized as All-American players.

The All-American list is lead by #3 Doubles team, Arianna Lopez and Chelsey Lynn, who are the NJCAA National Champions at the #3 spot. Also making the All-American team was Arina Yakovtseva, who finished as the National runner-up at the #2 singles position. View the complete National Tournament results.

Coach Mike Stroud has lead the team to two consecutive National Tournament appearances and has four of his top six players returning for the 2009-2010 season.

FCCAA State Tournament

The FCCJ Stars finished in second place behind Hillsborough Community College (HCC) at the FCCAA State Tennis Tournament April 17–18. Point standings were HCC 15, FCCJ 9, St. Petersburg College (SPC) 3.5 and Central Florida Community College 3. By virtue of this finish the Stars qualified for a return trip to the National Championship tournament in Tucson, Ariz., beginning May 2. HCC and SPC also qualified for the trip.

One of the top finishers for FCCJ was sophomore Jessica McAtee from Mandarin High School in Jacksonville. She won all of her matches and is the State Champion at the #5 singles position. Other top finishers were freshmen Arina Yakovtseva and Lara Hijbeek, state champs at the #2 doubles position, and freshmen Arianna Lopez and Chelsey Lynn, state champs at the #3 doubles position. Sophomore Alex Glebova won the Vickie Schnurr Top Academic Athlete Award for the second year in a row. This award goes to the tennis player with the highest GPA in the state of Florida for school year.

The young ladies appreciate all the support from the student body, faculty and staffers alike. We thank you all very much.

Shooting STARS

Last year’s number one seeded player, Alex Glebova from St. Petersburg, Russia, returns with a 4.0 GPA and some very fine victories at the 2008 NJCAA National Tournament. We’re glad to have a young lady of her stature back for her sophomore year.

Last year’s number three player and MPV Krista Bastien has moved on to the fine NCAA Division II school, Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Fla. Coach Shinn at Flagler has stated how excited he is to have her there and of course she’s thrilled to be there. Congratulations Krista.

Ashley Lowery of Jacksonville, with so much untapped skill, is leaning toward attending the University of North Florida with tennis possibly in the wings—she’s another hard to replace player.

Number four position STALWART, Jessica McAtee, had a tremendous freshman year in singles and played a very, very good spot on the number one doubles team with Glebova. “Mac” was the runner–up at the state tournament in 2008 for her number position. You have to be happy with second place in the state of Florida.

Michele Farmer came to FCCJ as a player after a little time off but as the season wore on she started to get her groove on, became more determined, got more confident and timing, and then got better and better. She stepped into the number 2 doubles team late with Krista Bastien and all they went on to win the number 2 double position at the 2008 State Tournament. She did a great job with her new partner—way to go Michele. We’re looking forward to her sophomore year.

This years new group is like “WOW” Check them out: Chelsey Lynn, Arina Yakovtseva, Sarah Woodall and Kikki Hurtt.

FCCJ is proud to announce the January addition of three super student–athletes who should add good strength to the Stars lineup on the court and in the classroom. They are Lara Hijbeek from Holland, Arianna Lopez from Venezuela, and Eliana Ramirez, a transfer from the University of West Alabama. Ramirez is from Clearwater, Fla. We are so glad to have them all.

Chelsey comes to us from New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where she had just an outstanding junior and high school career. She played and played hard thru so many tournaments and matches, districts, et al. She didn’t forget who she was, where she came from and how she achieved what she did. She capped her junior career with a terrific win over an old rival who has moved into the college ranks also. Chelsey had other school options but we are so glad that she chose FCCJ. She’ll make some university coach really happy in about two years.

Another fine player from overseas is Arina Yakovtseva. She comes all the way from Siberia, Russia, just to play for FCCJ. She joins another fine young Russian player, Alex Glebova, a sophomore who will have an awesome battle for the coveted and proud number one position. Arina has a lot of emotion in her game, a lot of power and even more skill. She’s an excellent addition to our team.

Sarah Woodall of Fleming High School in Fleming Island, Fla., and Kikki Hurtt from Lee High School in Jacksonville, Fla., are two dark horses who are going surprise some young ladies if they aren’t careful. Both have already delighted us: Sarah had a super first round victory at the ITA Fall Tournament and Kikki is making some noise here in practice matches on the FCCJ courts.

All in all, we’re really happy with everyone who decided to make FCCJ their home for the next couple of years. We expect each of these talented student–athletes to put in a lot of time and work—in the classroom, on the court and in the weight room—that will help them realize our goals, not the least of which is graduation and another trip to the national tournament where FCCJ belongs.

So come on ladies, we gotta roll now.

The Stars are preparing for a rugged 30 game season. Getting a lot of weight room work, a lot of road work and a lot of court work. Seeing a lot NCAA Division I and Division II teams will be good for the girls—it might not make them happy but will be good for them. We hope the injury bug doesn’t come calling on us. If it does our fine trainer Sonja Thigpen will take care of them like she has for the past several years.

2004–05 sophomore Viviana Rojas finished her time at Flagler College in St. Augustine. Frida Alegard played out her time at Midwestern State University, Kristen Thomas played at the University of Texas at Tyler, Melanie Eng did her last two years at the University of Florida (UNF), Iskra Nikolovska finished at St. Leo University, Melihova moves over to UNF, Dillet went to Eckerd College, Krista Bastien went to Flagler College, the list goes on and on.

Hey girls, watch out for that MySpace page—be careful.