ELON, N.C. – In her debut donning the maroon and gold, Elon women's tennis freshman
Ella Suk brought home not one, but five victories at last week's Elon Fall Invitational, winning the Powell-B singles draw as she earned her first collegiate singles and doubles victories.
Suk said she had been looking forward to the Invitational and being able to compete with her team for the first time.
"Honestly, I was a little nervous as an incoming freshman, but my team made it so exciting," Suk said. "I was so excited to come out here and compete, to see what the collegiate level looked like and I was just excited to be out in the atmosphere and the exciting times of being a part of a team and cheering on my teammates."
On the first day of the Invitational, Suk earned a 7-6 (6), 6-4 win against Patricia Palencia, of North Carolina Central, the first of her career. Suk also won her first two doubles matches with teammate Miray Konar.
"It was like a feeling I had never experienced before," Suk said. "I stayed calm and collected as I was taught to do throughout my whole junior career. I knew I needed to treat it like any other match and I was just really excited to be out here."
After a rain delay moved the final round of doubles and two rounds of singles of the Invitational to Sunday, Suk came out better than ever, winning both of her singles matches. Suk battled back to win the final contest in comeback fashion, overcoming a first-set loss to win in a final-set tiebreak.
"After that first set, I just collected my thoughts, stuck to what I knew to do and I fought until the end," Suk said. "It honestly paid off. I got such good insight from my coach and from my teammates and it really paid off to show what I could really do."
Suk ended her weekend strong, going 3-0 overall in singles, but said she could not have done it without the support of her teammates behind her.
"I could honestly owe all of my wins to my teammates," Suk said. "It was because of them that I pulled out all of my tough wins. Their support and their cheering got me through all of it."
Suk and the rest of her teammates combined for 17 total wins in singles and doubles over the weekend. She said watching her teammates succeed was a motivating factor for everyone to do well.
"Our team dynamic is like no other," Suk said. "The support that we have for each other and the encouragement that we give each other is honestly incomparable. We were able to cheer each other on court and off."
The Phoenix will compete in the Liberty Invitational this weekend and the ITA Carolina Regionals from Oct. 19-22 before returning home for the Jimmy Powell Invitational Oct. 27-29. Suk said she is looking forward to returning home at the end of the fall season with the team.
"This first fall tournament could not have been any better," Suk said. "It set the tone for an unbelievable fall season that we're about to have. And for the spring, it's going to be even better. We're practicing really hard every day and doing weights and conditioning. I think we're really setting ourselves up for success. We work hard every single day, and I truly think it's going to pay off."
Once the fall season ends, the Phoenix will look toward the spring championship season. Suk said she is eager to begin competing and to strive for the CAA Championship, which Elon will host.
"Our coach told us over the summer that we were hosting and we were all super excited, especially with our seniors coming for their last year, it's going to be so memorable," Suk said. "Being able to show teams what we're about, bringing the energy and bringing the passion and everything that we're about is definitely going to be super special. And I think showing our crowd too and all the people that we are going to bring in is going to be great."
'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--
