While most Saint Louis University students were catching up on sleep or traveling to exotic places during winter break, sophomore tennis player P.J. Hendrie was on the tennis court training for the upcoming season with his younger brother Jake.
“My dad runs an academy back home, so I was able to train there quite a bit, particularly over the holiday break.” Hendrie said. “It was a lot of fun because I was also able to train with my younger brother, and it is great having someone else to train with when you are away from the team and that dynamic.”
Hendrie’s younger brother signed to play with the Billikens in the 2008-2009 season on Jan. 8. Jake won the Texas state championship for high school students earlier this season and is ranked No. 100 nationally among seniors and No. 9 in Texas by TennisRecruiting.net.
“Jake brings great spirit and talent to our team,” said SLU Director of Tennis Operations Jonathan Zych. “I love his attitude and expect him to play in the upper part of our lineup in the early stages of his career. He is great to be around.”
While P.J. Hendrie was able to train during the offseason, he said that the physical aspect of tennis is not the only component involved in winning or being successful.
“I have a tendency to be too emotional and worked up during the game,” he said. “I think I really need to work on mental toughness in order to overcome that. Physical strength is something that we all know to work on, but it is that mental toughness which in the end wins and loses games.”
After a long offseason, both the SLU men’s and women’s tennis teams return to action this weekend. The women take on McKendree University tonight at home, while the men’s team plays tomorrow against the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.
On the women’s side during the fall season, freshman Hailee Elmore, who was 5-2 on the season, led the women’s team in singles. Freshman Sarah Septien also finished strong in the fall season, going 4-3.
The men’s team is also coming off a strong fall season. Junior Sean McManus, who went 6-3 in singles, led the Billikens in singles, while Hendrie went 5-4 in singles. Junior Felipe Acosta was 4-5 on the season and advanced to the regional quarterfinals in the ITA tournament.
P.J. Hendrie said that these strong performances were made the fall season one of SLU’s best in recent years.
“Everyone did an exceptionally good job,” Hendrie said. “When everyone is putting in great effort and great performances, you are going to have a great season like the one we had in the fall.”
He said he hopes SLU can continue the success it had during the fall into the upcoming season.
“I think that doing well in the fall season gives us the confidence we need to do well in this spring season,” Hendrie said. “Hopefully all of this positive momentum will translate into results for the team.”
