First-year tennis player Catherine Lindsay received the first MIAC Athlete of the Week honor of her collegiate career April 4 after she won all five of her spring break matches in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Lindsay is 25-0 in singles and doubles so far in her time at St. Thomas, helping the Tommies to a 12-1 overall record so far on the season.

“Sometimes winning is out of your control,” Lindsay said. “Just playing your game and being the best player and the best tennis team that you can be is all that we can do.”

Lindsay hopes to continue this streak throughout her career as a Tommie.
“I definitely plan on continuing to play here because I have had such a good experience,” she said. “Hopefully the more I play, the more experience I can get and the better I get.”

As a new athlete to the team, adjusting to the highly competitive environment has been a challenge. However, Lindsay said it has only pushed her to try harder. Coach Terry Peck said that the success of his team comes from the passion that each of the athletes have for the game.

“If you care, you are there,” Peck said. “If they want to be there and they want to do this, then they will be really successful.”
With a wide variety of talent on the team, Peck said that it is important for each player to commit to what speaks to them the most.

“When you have a well-rounded, high achieving player on the team, the number one thing is if they are having fun and they enjoy doing it,” Peck said. “If they are happy, then they will improve, have fun and they will get better.”

Peck hopes that Lindsay will continue to push herself to the best that she can be alongside her teammates in order to reach her full potential.

“I think our team shares common goals and hopefully we can achieve those by the end of the season,” Lindsay said.

Ava Diaz can be reached at diaz7981@stthomas.edu

Graphic produced by Christine Hastings.