— In just two short years at the Mercyhurst University, Courtney Thompson, a Geneva graduate and four-time Star Beacon Ashtabula County Tennis Player of the Year, has quickly moved up the ranks.

“My freshman year, I was No. 6 singles. This year, I was No. 2 singles and moved up to No. 2 doubles,” the daughter of Rhonda and Vern Thompson said.

Thompson has found some winning ways as well, going 10-6 as a singles player and 10-6 in doubles, as well.

“I worked a lot harder,” Thompson said. “I got better. A boy on our team is coaching me right now and he’s given me a lot of lessons. He’s really good. I work out, I hit as many balls as I can, I play matches all the time so it wasn’t much of a surprise (to improve so much).”

In many ways, Thompson wanted to move up the depth chart because she wanted to be challenged a little more.

“That’s exactly what I wanted to do,” she said. “At No. 6, the girl I would play, unless we played a really good team, was a lot of times not very good. I was playing girls on the high school level or not quite as good as some of the girls I played in high school. The matches were boring for me. I thought I could do a lot better. It was tough my freshman year coming in.”

Having played in the program at Geneva under coach Scott Torok had prepared Thompson pretty well for what she has faced while at Mercyhurst.

“I got a lot from playing at Geneva,” Thompson said. “It’s a good program with good coaches. I also played a lot of USTA matches in juniors and at Club Ultimate, which, I think, has changed its name, and in Highland Heights with Brian Smallwood.”

Playing in college has been a bit different for Thompson, who played mostly only singles matches in high school.

“I am playing doubles, too,” she said. “We play singles and doubles in the same match. I have to be ready to play a lot more sets and I have to be better at doubles. We play doubles first then go into our singles matches. If you lose a tough doubles match, you have to get over it quick and go right into singles.”

There were adjustments off the court, too.

“There’s a lot more travel,” Thompson said. “The close matches are an hour and a half away. In high school, they were maybe 15 minutes. There’s a lot more travel, a lot better competition and we see a lot of better players.”

Thompson’s race up the depth chart is not yet complete.

“What I want to try and do this year is be No. 1,” she said. “Our No. 1 is pretty good, but I think I can give her a run for her money possibly, if I work harder. I don’t think we have any recruits coming in because we have had a couple different coaches this year. We should have just about the same lineup.”

And Thompson knows the way to continue her ascent.

“I’m really working on everything,” she said. “One of the most important things is I am learning to attack and be aggressive. In high school and so far in college, I’ve played defensive. I outran people and got the ball back (over the net) every time. I did that my freshman year and was getting better my sophomore year. I’m working on putting away shots and being more aggressive while not being reckless.”

Simply put, Thompson wants to attack but be smart in doing so.

“I don’t want to just go out and hit it as hard as I can,” she said. “There’s definitely a technique to it. You want to hit hard, but you can use angles. You don’t have to smash the ball and you can use it as a more aggressive style.”

Being just about an hour away from home, Thompson has received as much support as possible from home.

“They’ve been able to come up and see a lot of matches,” she said of her family. “Our home club is Pennbriar, which is about 50 minutes away. They’ve given me a lot of support. Even a couple of Geneva players and coaches have come up to see me play.“

Thompson has also found success in her accounting major. In fact, she’s had so much success in the classroom she is adding a marketing minor to her course load.

“It’s going pretty good,” she said. “I got straight A’s the whole year. It’s a lot of hard work. My GPA is 3.9-something. I got a couple B’s my freshman year. I added a minor so I have to take extra classes next year, but I think that will help me with my job outlook.”

Ettinger is a freelance writer from Ashtabula.

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