Collegiate Racquetball National Champions

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH RACQUETBALL TEAM

Twelve years ago, while finishing my nursing prerequisites, I started playing racquetball at the University of Utah's courts.  I ran into the coach of the U’s racquetball team and he asked if I wanted to play on the team.  I had no idea there was even a racquetball team at the U.  I found out it is a club sport, but one that many Universities put effort towards, specifically BYU.  

I met a couple of the women athletes who convinced me I was good enough to play with the team.  I decided to try to make it work with my busy schedule, just for the experience.  I played in a couple of the local tournaments against BYU, Utah State and Utah Valley and really had fun.  I was happy I gave it a shot, since it was kind of miraculous that I was eligible and a still a decent player.  We ended up getting enough players to put together a team and qualified for the National Collegiate tournament in Southern California.

This was quite an unexpected surprise, directly related to my decision to go back to school and pursue my desire to become a nurse.  It turned out to be only the beginning of unexpected opportunities to challenge myself and explore what my limits really were. 

Wednesday

It was time to head to California for Nationals, Brenda and our friend decided to drive with our dogs, while my mom, another friend, and I flew there the next day. 

My first match was on Wednesday at 11:00 against Karina Krajec from Baldwin Wallace College.  My fan club was there to cheer me on.  The court was so HOT and I was sweating bullets without really playing hard.  I was surprised  and thrilled to easily win in two games (15-1, 15-1).  I won my first match at Nationals.  My next singles match would be against Marci Mangelson from BYU on Thursday.  I was anxious because I knew Marci won our division last year and was an experienced competitor in racquetball, having coaches and trainers to help her.

We all watched Kristen Walsh (our #1 seed) and her mom, Marianne (our #2 seed), play their matches.  They won easily and gracefully.  It was fun for all of us to win our first matches.

Thursday

Anna (our #4 seed) and I (#3 seed) had our first doubles match.  We played Bryant College.  Again my fan club was cheering us on and, by the end of our match, we had every available Utah team member cheering for us.  We won the first game 15-7.  Anna and I were both surprised we won by that margin.  This was our first doubles match every played together.

Our second game didn’t go so well.  The other team figured out they could pick on Anna and she had a hard time returning their serves.  We called timeout and I started to return all the serves, but the change was made too late.  We lost that game 4-15, which meant we would play a third game. 

We started playing alright, but things started to go bad.  We were losing points we shouldn't be losing.  I noticed Kristen, our #1 seeded woman, banging on the glass telling us to call a timeout.  She suggested making a couple of adjustments in how we were receiving their serve and told me to use a Z-drive serve.  She reminded us to move them out of the middle by using ceiling shots.  We tried to convert her advice into points, but it still wasn’t happening.  We found ourselves facing match point against us at 3-10.  Somehow we managed to get the serve back, but still couldn’t score a point.  They were serving for the match once again. 

Anna and I held strong and got two sideouts so we were serving again.  Anna had two great drive serves which brought the score to 5-10, then it was my turn.  I was well aware that I was capable of winning this match for us, but it is different when you have a partner on the court contributing to the rallies.  I had a couple of great unreturnable serves that brought the score to 7-10.  The other team called a timeout and Kristen came in the court to encourage us.  She knew exactly what to say and I felt a calming confidence.  I knew we had a chance to come back and win the match.  I continued to hold my serve and eventually found myself serving for the match at 10-10.  I served and remember Anna just getting to a shot that looked like a sure sideout for them.  It was a great shot, so we each watched the ball closely hoping it would bounce twice, meaning we would win the match.  The instant it hit the ground for the second time we both jumped in the air, found each other and gave each other a huge “jumping” hug.  It was a great match and EVERYONE was cheering for us!  We gave our fans and teammates hugs and enjoyed our moment, full of excitement; everyone wanted to celebrate.  The team we beat were very good sports, even when we saw each other through the remainder of the tournament.

Anna and I after our exciting first win as double partners!

Kristen and Marianne's doubles match had been scheduled to play before our match was over.  Since Kristen was helping us at our doubles match, Marianne stalled and they warmed up longer than usual.  The Walsh’s easily won their match, hardly breaking a sweat.  They made a great team who was fun to watch.  It was Kristen's last collegiate year, so what fun for them to play together.

Next would be my match against BYU.  My biggest concern about my match was whether Kristen would be able to be there to coach me.  She had given me a couple of pointers during the day, but I was pretty sure I would need more help than that.

The time for my match finally arrived and I was excited to see what would happen.  I felt I had a chance to beat Marci if I could play very smart; BYU has well-coached players and a history of winning the Women's National Championship.  We warmed up in the court and Marci was very serious, she definitely had her game-face on.  The match started out well for me.  I remember I scored 6 points and felt I was playing smart and in control.  She was able to return my serves, but really couldn’t do anything offensive with them.  This was good, until things started to change. 

I was aware that Kristen was not there and I felt my intensity of wanting to win lessen, while Marci's seemed to increase.  I was playing, but not being as aggressive and couldn’t seem to do anything about it.  I remember hearing my fans cheering and trying to motivate me to get going, but it just wasn’t happening.  I felt I was missing the mental control/desire required to be able to turn things around and win that game.  I lost it, 6-15.  I knew I had to regroup and get my competitive juices flowing.  It felt like I was giving her the match because of the assumed “BYU racquetball strength”.  I had confidence that I could beat BYU, not beat Marci, but beat a well-coached BYU athlete.  That had to change!!!

I started our second game strong, scoring three straight, very smart points.  I was thankful to look up and see Kristen there.  I had felt inadequate in that competitive, collegiate team atmosphere, but now I had my own "coach" to help me.  Thankfully she showed up before I lost control again.  That second game was close throughout.  Kristen would signal to me which serve I should serve and she inspired my competitive edge because I could rely on her to be strategic about how I served.  I used my timeouts so Kristen could give me specific pointers of what to change in a motivating way.  I concentrated on specific parts of my game and the others seemed to fall into place. 

A key piece of advice was to quit hitting the ball to the middle of the court; either hit a ceiling shot to keep her back or hit a winning pass down the line.  The ceiling shot advice really helped because it took Marci’s hard-hitting style away from her and I could feel the momentum shift my way.  A key play came when Marci got hit with the ball; it seemed to mess her up mentally and then she seemed to use it as an excuse when her shots didn't go exactly as planned.  I felt her stress level rise, especially when I was up 13-9.  She is a great athlete and was able to pull herself together and tie the score at 13-13, but shortly thereafter I won the game, 15-13.  I turned to shake Marci’s hand and she was already headed out the door.  At that moment I knew the door was open for me to win this match, if I could keep up the competitive edge and keep her mentally off balance.

During the third game I noticed there were lots of people watching the match and heard loud cheering for both of us.  I noticed something strange within the cheering for Marci, it contained an element of expectation rather than excitement.  It was like she was expected to win the match at all cost – like she SHOULD be winning.  Within me, the only expectation was that I give this match all I had and accept the outcome, knowing I had given it my all. 

The third game went much more smoothly for me.  Kristen had helped instill a confidence within myself that was strengthened with each frustration that Marci showed.  I played smart with my ceiling shots and did a little better of taking advantage of the opportunities to hit winning shots.  There were a couple of points where I had to dive to keep the ball alive and I ended up winning each of those points; winning points after diving always feels good.  I served for the match at 10-7 and closed it out, winning 11-7.  The shot that ended the game wasn’t a winner by me, it was a missed opportunity by Marci which exemplified how the third game had been played.  I shook her hand and told her she was a great opponent.  I wished I would have taken a minute to thank my fans from center court, but the excitement of the moment made me want to get out with them and celebrate my accomplishment.
 

High five with Kristen after beating BYU.

I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face!  I beat BYU at Nationals as a University of Utah athlete.  Life couldn’t get any better than this.  It seems like time stood still and we all stood around in amazement of what had happened.  I kept saying “I beat BYU!” to those around me.  Marianne was thrilled that I was so excited for this win.  It was fun to be excited around everyone and my high seemed to last all night long.  I have always felt the intensity of the BYU/Utah rivalry and I was experiencing the winning side of one of those rivalry matches.  I was thrilled to have my friends and mom to share that moment with, and it didn’t even cross my mind that Jen and Natalie were BYU alumni.  At that moment we were all Ute fans through and through.

As our evening of celebration started, I felt some muscles letting me know they had worked excessively hard, especially my shoulder, wrist and pinkie, where I land when I dive.  It felt great to shower and get all cleaned up after a day of rewarding victories.

I was exhausted when we got to the hotel.  We all changed into our comfy clothes and enjoyed some resting and relaxing.  I had a doubles match in the morning and a semi-final match in the evening, so I went to bed early.  I remember throughout the night thinking about beating BYU and wondering if it was just a dream.  The minute mom woke up she leaned over to me and said, “Go Andi, Go Andi, Go Andi”.  This had been the chant for the entire evening after my BYU victory.  It was a fun morning to wake up to.

Friday

Our doubles match was against BYU, Marci, who I had beaten the day before, and Audrey.  I figured they would have their opportunity for revenge during our doubles match.  BYU played great and beat us quite quickly (5-15, 3-15).  I reminded Anna to have fun, as that was important for me.

I was relieved my match was in the evening.  I went to lunch with Kristen, Marianne and Anna, which was the only time we spent time together as a women’s team.  It was nice.  I asked Marianne and Kristen if they thought we really had a chance to win the overall women’s title.  Marianne said that since Anna and I were still in the Gold bracket that we had a chance to get lots of points for the team.  It was fun to hear there was a possibility, but I didn’t think about it again until much later in the tournament.

Kristen and Marianne played their doubles match against Sacrament State, which was a bit more competitive, but they were victorious again.  We watched Kristen win her singles match easily.  It seemed that everyone expected Kristen to make it to the final match to play a familiar athlete from Alabama, Adrienne.  Both Kristen and Adrienne play on the pro tour for the same team, ranked #5 and #7 respectively.  They would make an awesome final match of #1 seeded women.

Our next quest was to find out if I, an unknown from Utah, could make it into my finals match in the #3 seeded women.  I watched my opponent, Mariange Russell from Sacrament State, warm up and recognized instantly that she didn’t hit really hard.  I needed to figure out a way to use this to my advantage.  I warmed up carefully, knowing that I had to loosen up my shoulder if I wanted to have a chance to move it after my match.  I felt good, was relaxed and knew I had nothing to lose.  I had already surpassed my expectations and anything beyond that was extra chocolate on the top of an already yummy chocolate dessert.

Sacrament State vs University of Utah - Semifinals 

Mariange won the serve and started off with a bang, two backhand drive aces that I couldn’t even get my racquet on.  I probably should have been concerned, but amazingly I wasn’t.  I was there to enjoy the experience and getting all stressed out would work against my goal.  We played some rallies and I found myself down 6-2.  Kristen was there again and suggested I call a timeout.  She shared with me that all my hits were going to the middle of the court, that Mariange wasn’t having to move at all.  I needed to use my ceiling shot to move her back and use some tricky serves. 

I served a jam serve that worked perfectly.  She didn’t have a clue how to play it.  I looked up to Kristen and smiled, my jam serve that Kristen had been teaching me finally worked!  We played for a while and the score evened at 7, then at 8.  I could feel myself getting tired and my muscles were sore, but I knew I had to overlook their cries for attention.  I could see my opponent was  also tired; her serve that initially was not returnable, had slowed.  She called a timeout and Kristen again came rushing to my side to coach me.  She told me to keep serving her hard and use my line shots instead of hitting the side wall.  I got back in and served a forehand drive serve perfectly.  I closed out the game with 5 perfect forehand drive serves; the final score was 15-9.

The second game started with me scoring some quick, smart points.  I could taste the victory and my competitive instincts went into overdrive.  During the first timeout, Kristen told me to hit the ball hard, to play like I was playing against her, not to play at the level of my opponent.  I took this information to heart and put it to use.  I dominated the rest of that game and felt proud I could do it.  I was tired, but overcame it and ended up winning 15-0.  I was in control of every aspect of that game and my opponent's mental frustration fed my confidence and made the match even easier.  I won and would be playing in the finals of my division for the gold medal.  Who wudda thunk that?

Congratulations were there, but it was different this time.  It was all business and there was no reason to celebrate yet.  I needed prepare to give it my all in the final the next day.

Saturday

I woke up very aware I would be playing in the finals later that day.  I was calm, excited and overall ready to give it my all.  My shoulder and wrist were very sore.  I didn’t know how that would affect my play, but I knew I would play as hard as I could every second I was on the court.

Anna and I played against Penn State for the doubles 3^rd/4^th place.  We started out playing very good, probably because we were both relaxed and just there to have fun.  I was aware of some wrist/forearm pain when I hit hard with my forehand, so I had to make some adjustments which wasn't good.  We had a lead, but Penn State played smart and started hitting to Anna.  We lost the first game, 11-15.  The second game was just as close and had almost the identical outcome, we lost 12-15.  They were a  respectful team and fun to play against.  I had played as hard as I could, given the situation with my wrist and my upcoming final in singles.

The fact that we lost our doubles match in two straight games wasn’t all that bad because Kristen and Marianne were playing in their doubles fina.  We hurried over to watch their match.  We knew it would be a tight match because they were playing against Alabama.  All four athletes played very well and were evenly matched.  It was fun to watch Kristen play while giving 100% effort.  The match took three games and we won.  It felt great to win our first gold medal!!

My match time arrived.  I watched my opponent Kaylee, from Oregon State, warm up and could tell we would provide a tough match for each other if I could find my A game.  I wasn’t really nervous, instead I was excited to be playing in my division finals.  As our game began, I could see she had good control of her shots so it would be important for me to keep my out of the middle of the court.  She served me mostly lob serves which I was able to return consistently.  Kristen, my personal coach, was having me serve Z-drives and Z-lobs to her backhand side.  She was able to return them but the returns were not winners.  We went back and forth during the first part of the first game, but then she had a good strong run and took the first game, 15-6.  I didn’t have the confidence or control of my game that I needed.  Kristen talked with me and tried to help, but on the inside I felt that Kaylee was probably going to come out on top.

The second game started with her serving me a hard drive serve to my backhand.  This was a smart strategy on her part because I was tired and not moving my feet too much.  She had a few aces, but then for some reason she started lobbing to me again.  I actually started playing a bit smarter and closed the gap to 6-7, she was up.  I was trying so hard to serve good z-drives, but my shoulder just didn’t have the snap that is used to.  I had to resort to my lobs.  We had some good rallies in that game and I closed some of them out, but that wasn’t enough.  Kaylee went on another run and won the second game, 15-7. 

I was disappointed, but still proud of what I had accomplished.  I took silver in my division.  I stepped out of the court and instantly felt my shoulder give way to the weight of my arm and just hang there.  It was sore and I was finally able to pay some attention to it.  Someone got me some ice for my hand, but I really wanted it for my shoulder. 

My fan club and I made our way to watch Marianne and found her down in the first game, 0-6.  She needed some serious cheering and we took care of that.  Her opponent was from Sacramento State and was the sister of my semifinal opponent.  The cheering really got to the other girl and Marianne went on a tear.  She ended up winning the first game and continuing her momentum into the second one.  It was never a challenge and Marianne won the gold in Division 2. 

I made my way to the awards desk where they presented me with the silver medal for Division 3 women’s intercollegiate nationals.  I didn’t have any expectations entering the tournament, so to get a medal was wonderful.  I put it around my neck and walked out to find my fan club.  It was fun to see them all smile when they saw me.  This was kind of a dream for all of us.

My proud mom and me!

We went to the hotel to get cleaned up.  It felt so good to shower and contemplate what I had accomplished.  Parts of my body were sore, but for the most part I held up pretty good; especially given the fact that I am at least ten years older than most of the participants at the tournament.

The next match in championship court would be Kristen (University of Utah) vs. Adrienne (University of Alabama).  Marianne told us this would be a tough match and I was excited to watch some good racquetball.

We sat at the top so our voices would carry into the court through the opening in the top of the glass.  The match started and Kristen really struggled.  She was having a hard time putting anything away, while Adrienne was playing very well.  Adrienne ended up winning the first game by a bigger margin than expected.  I was nervous for Kristen.

The second game started the same way, but then Kristen found bits of momentum and eventually put them together to win the second game 15-13.  The championship match would be decided by a third game to 11.  Kristen played really tough and ended up winning 11-4.  She was incredible to watch.  I admired her ability to motivate and coach herself during the match.  Everything she needed to win was within her and she knew what she needed to do.  Then, the impressive part, was when things weren't working as she wanted, she was able to pull herself through it and motivate herself to do something about it.  She focused on the positive things and used them to gain momentum until she was literally uncatchable. 

With that last match finished, the only remaining question was, did we, as the University of Utah women’s team, gather enough points to win the overall championship.  My family, friends and the men on our team thought we did, but I couldn’t allow myself to believe it.  We would have to wait for the banquet when they would announce the winning teams.

They finally opened the doors and we spilt up strategically, some of us scrambled through the food line while the rest looked for a table and then found some extra chairs.  We all gathered around our small round table, including the guys.  It was fun to talk about the chance of our women’s team winning the overall team trophy.  It seemed so unreal to me, but Marianne thought it was very possible.  The guys confidently said we had it nailed down, but I wasn’t quite so sure.

They first announced the overall winners and asked them to say a few words.  Then they announced that all first and second place division finishers would be awarded All-American awards.  It took a moment for me to realize this included me.  How cool was that!!  They announced our names and I walked down and got my certificate from the BYU coach, who happened be the one handing them out.  I wondered if he realized I took that award away from one of his players.  I was in shock and so happy at the same time. 

Now it was time to announce the team winners.  They started with the women’s category tenth place and moved up through the top ten.  We listened intently to hear if we had accomplished the impossible.  Fourth place went to BYU, just off the trophy podium.  I am sure this was a shock to them.  Third place went to Alabama; second place to Oregon State; first place to University of Utah.  We won the women’s team competition at Intercollegiate Nationals.  I am a member of a national championship team.  We got a large trophy that will be displayed in the University of Utah Fieldhouse along with our team photo.



University of Utah Racquetball Team 2004

This was an incredible experience that I never thought I would be a part of.  I have felt all my life that I am a decent athlete, but it never seemed to materialize until this unexpected experience.  Who would have thought I would be an All-American, national racquetball champion at the University of Utah?  Not me, but I am etched in a piece of University sport history that will never be taken away. 

My take home message was that I am an athlete who never had the opportunity of being coached, in any sport.  I have played many sports and they are a core part of who I am, but my athletic achievements have only reached the level that I alone have been capable of carrying them to. I haven’t had anyone there to help me improve upon my natural skills.  That all changed when Kristen was willing to share her racquetball expertise with me.

The specific coaching experience happened during my match against BYU.  I lost my first game and was occasionally aware that Kristen wasn’t there, but it was no big deal.  I wanted her to be there because I thought she could help if I got stuck, but I didn’t really expect her to be there.  After all, I wasn’t supposed to win that match.  I was a nobody in that court to almost everyone watching that match.  Remember that in my mind BYU was the powerhouse of racquetball.  It is what they portray.  I knew they had won many championships, that they practiced regularly and they had a coaching staff.  They were built to win.

Our second game started and noticed that Kristen was there, I felt a twinge of confidence that hadn’t been there earlier.  Little did I know that I was about to witness the internal power that a capable coach can instill in a person who is willing to 1) put aside their “athletic pride”, 2) trust in the coach’s knowledge of the sport, 3) mentally believe that winning is possible, and 4) physically give it everything they have on the court.  My mental and physical skills benefited from Kristen’s help to organize my physical play and to allow me to have 100% confidence in the decisions being made.  I didn’t have to question my decisions because I trusted her entirely and she was willing to tell me what I needed to do to win the game.  All I had to do was put what she told me into action.  Could it get any easier than that?  In all my athletic endeavors, I have never experienced this teamwork between a good coach and an athlete.  That is kind of sad, but late is better than never.  I thanked Kristen for helping me be the best player I could be during that tournament.