Rising Phoenix: Suk Clinches Impressive Elon Comeback

ELON, N.C. – Every college tennis player dreams of being able to clinch a match for their team. Even so, freshman Ella Suk was unaware she was in such a position Sunday against Appalachian State.

With the Elon University women's tennis team leading 3-2 in the match following a trio of singles wins, Suk had a chance to be the hero for her team by delivering a fourth point, unbeknownst to her. After breaking serve to go ahead 5-3 in her second set, Suk held serve in the next game to secure a 6-4, 6-3 win.

The sight of her teammates running in her direction in the moments following her match point caught Suk off guard until she realized what was happening.

"I was like, 'What's going on?'" Suk laughed. "I put two and two together and realized I clinched."

This was the first time in Suk's young college tennis career she has had the chance to clinch a victory for her team in singles. For her, it's unlike anything else in the sport.

"Clinching is the best feeling in the world," Suk said. "There's no feeling like all of your teammates running up to you. You just feel so happy and so accomplished because you've really done your part."

As her match on Court 4 wound down, she did not know how important it was in the overall outcome of the match. The only other match on court when Suk finished went the way of the Mountaineers, meaning her win turned out to be necessary for a Phoenix victory.

"I tried not to look at the scoreboard and tried to stay focused on my match and honed in," Suk said. "[I] definitely learned a lot, just to know what to think about in those tough moments."

Singles became even more important for the Phoenix after falling in a tight doubles point that was clinched by the Mountaineers in a tiebreak in the final match to finish. Needing four singles victories to complete a comeback, Suk and her teammates knew they needed to reset quickly.

The response in singles from the Phoenix was resounding, with Elon putting up points in the Nos. 3-6 spots to overcome the heartbreaking defeat in doubles. Not dwelling on doubles was the key to the turnaround in singles, according to Suk.

"Nobody was disappointed," Suk said. "We were like, 'OK, we lost a doubles point. We're just going to come back and fight in singles.' And that's what we do best is to not dwell on the past and just forget about what happened in doubles and we're just going to focus on singles and fight together. That's when we're at our best."

Even though it took Suk a moment to realize she had clinched the win for her team, she cherished celebrating on the court with her teammates, who were cheering her on from the adjacent court throughout her second set.

"I definitely couldn't have done it without them and their support," Suk said. "It's just another point on the board, but clinching is definitely a really, really good experience."

'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.

--ELON--

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Players Mentioned

Ella Suk: 5' 5"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Ella Suk
: 5' 5"; Freshman