By Elliana Griffith, Staff Writer
Tennis is a sport built on teamwork, hard effort and determination. Ouachita’s tennis team embodies those values and more, especially graduating junior Marlee Bledsoe and graduating senior Natalia Zamora Capriolo. The tennis team recently celebrated Senior Day on April 11 before their home game against Harding University.
Senior Day is a fun event meant to honor the players who will soon be leaving Ouachita. The day starts with family and friends gathering together, and then the seniors receive gifts made for them by the rest of the team. This year’s gifts were flowers, tote bags and personalized photo albums. Each girl on the team picked a photo of herself with either Bledsoe or Zamora and then wrote a note to that person on a card beside it. The last gift that the girls received was an embroidered, white alumni jacket, signifying that they had joined the Alumni Club.
Coach Davilus took a moment to say a few meaningful words about Marlee and Natalia and all of the memories they had made. Bledsoe said the event was both celebratory and reflective. “Our time here is coming to an end, which is exciting as we start a new chapter,” she said. “At the same time, you’re flooded with memories from the past few years, and it’s a lot of joy to look back on.”
It’s clear that there’s a lot of love and happy memories flowing through this team.
Both sophomore Alice Kubler and Bledsoe share that one of their favorite memories from being on the team was a win against Henderson last year to make it into the playoffs. Other memories Bledsoe loved were meaningful conversations on van rides, reading funny quotes and sharing inside jokes with her teammates.“You can get caught up in the busyness of going here and there, but the memories we make on trips, at tournaments and in practices outweigh every win or loss,” Bledsoe said.
A strength evident in the team is how they actively support each other both on and off the court. Kubler recalled a match from her first year when she and Zamora were the only players left on adjacent courts. Zamora was trailing but still competing.“I needed her to keep going because if she had lost, I would have been the only one still playing, and that would have been really stressful,” Kubler said.
“We were changing ends, and I told her, ‘Please just keep playing.’ She said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got you. I’m going to keep pushing.’ I ended up winning before her match was done, and we ran onto the court. It was a lot of fun, but I remember that being a really big moment for me and Natalia.”
It’s clear that Ouachita’s tennis team is a force to be reckoned with, both on the court and in terms of friendship. They support each other through thick and thin and inspire one another to grow. Both Bledsoe and Zamora have helped guide the team and set a shining example of Christ during their years at Ouachita.
