Meet Sophia Jiang, co-captain of the Memorial Girls tennis team. Sophia’s tennis career has come a long way, from playing doubles during her freshman year and placing 4th in the WIAA Alternate Girls Tennis State Tournament to reaching the top 32 consecutively in the 2021 and 2022 WIAA Girls Tennis State Individual Tournament in singles. Named in the 2022 First Team of the Madison All-Area Girls Tennis Team Singles, she also happens to be one of the Editors-in-Chief in Sword and Shield! I sat down with Sophia to talk about her journey as a tennis player, and what she hopes to accomplish in her final year.

What are you looking forward to this tennis season?

I’m looking forward to being a leader and being a player because it’s my senior season. I get to also be co-captain with two other amazing captains. I think I’ve improved since last year, and I’m ready to do something different in terms of playing style because there’s going to be a lot of really great new incoming players this year. It’s a tough draw, but I’m looking forward to enjoying my last season.

What mindset are you going to bring with you to elevate the girls tennis team’s play to new levels?

I would say go for every single shot and work on getting better every single day because there’s always room for improvement. It doesn’t matter if you just picked up a racket like a month ago or you’ve been playing for years and years; there’s always something to take away from every match. After you play somebody new, always think to yourself “What was my best shot?” “What was their best shot?” “What is something I can improve on?” What’s really important is that you take away something crucial after playing after every match. 

Would there be a specific school or player that you are looking forward to playing against?

Sun Prairie East. They have a really good player (Annalise Yang), and she was state champion as a freshman, so I’m just looking forward to seeing how that match turns out because she’s just a great player. This year will be my third time playing against her, and I’m really excited to see how that goes.

What’s your favorite memory/moment from playing tennis in your 4 years at Memorial? 

Last year at the state tournament, second round. I played the number one seed who eventually became state champion, and I was actually able to get 4 games total off of her. I remember just telling myself to get every single shot back and not to give her any shortfalls to attack on. I was kind of just grinding through it and I remember people started to actually watch our match. There were people who I had no idea who they were but they’re actually like cheering me on and that felt really good. It just felt so nice to put up a really good fight even though you know that that person is better than you. You know, if you’re going to lose you, you want to go down after really trying your best.

What were some of your biggest challenges and/or injuries you had to push through? 

I had quite a few injuries in my high school career. I had a knee problem my sophomore year right before conference and luckily I was able to kind of push through that by tapping up my knee. Another bigger challenge was transitioning from doubles to singles between my freshman and sophomore year. That was really tough because a doubles game is so different from the singles game in terms of footwork, aim and, you know, mentality. It’s different being the only person on the side versus having somebody else to depend on, cheer up. Considering I didn’t have much time to practice singles after the alternate spring season in freshman year (due to COVID-19), I had just a few months to start practicing for singles. Because we did well in doubles that year, I felt this kind of pressure to live up to the standard but in the singles world. I’m glad that I made it through, and now I do know that I like singles more.

Finally, what advice would you give to underclassmen who are in the tennis team or who are looking to join the team?

My biggest advice would be that, although a lot of people say 4 years go by really fast, you will inevitably grow as a tennis player along the way. Just because maybe you’re the underdog right now doesn’t mean that you can’t be really, really good in the future, and as long as you put in the work in the off season and invest a lot of time and energy into practicing and challenging your own mentality, you will improve exponentially. That’s just the nature of practicing: if you aren’t where you want to be right now, put in consistent work, and you will be able to get there in one, two, or three years.

Thanks, Sophia!

Get ready for Sectionals and State at the start of October, go Memorial!