It’s common for athletic teams to feel like a family, especially when it comes to college teams. College teammates travel together. They practice and train together, hold study sessions with each other; many even live together. So it’s no surprise when this special connection forms.

“A lot of teams see themselves as a family. I definitely feel that both of our [tennis] teams do, and with this team, it’s a little easier to do that,” tennis coach Jonathan Zych said. This ease is, in part, due to the fact that some members of the men’s and women’s tennis teams at Saint Louis University actually are family.

Jake and PJ Hendrie on the men’s team, and Mia and Hailee Elmore on the women’s, are brothers and sisters, respectively.
“We really try to think of ourselves as a second family, and with all of these guys on the team that comes a lot more naturally. … Everyone is a lot more comfortable around each other,” Zych said.

PJ, a senior from New Braunfels, Tex., chose SLU over a variety of other offers. “I had actually committed to the University of Texas at San Antonio, but I had one visit left so I tried out SLU because I knew a few people from high school on the team here. Once I got here, I just fell in love with it,” PJ said.

PJ’s brother Jake didn’t take a lot of convincing to want to join PJ at SLU.

“I’d say I was pretty much the reason he came here,” PJ said. “Obviously, with the team and the school being so good, it wasn’t really hard to convince him, but I like to think his decision was 90 percent based on me.”

“I was really fortunate bringing [Jake and Mia] onto the team. They both really wanted to follow their siblings, so I had commitments from them very early on, and it was great because they are both really good players,” Zych said.

Hailee, the senior Elmore, transferred to SLU after spending a year at Indiana University on the track and field team.

“I was injured a lot while running, so it was really frustrating. I thought about tennis just because I had played it in high school and all of a sudden everything just kind of fell in place,” Hailee said. “I had known Coach Zych from tournaments I played in high school and that made transferring a lot easier.”

Zych had coached in his native Peoria, Ill., prior to coming to SLU, and had met Hailee, a Springfield, Ill. native, during this time.
Hailee shared PJ’s sentiments in wanting her sibling to join her, as well.

“I encouraged her a lot, but I think she wanted to come here all along. She knew how much I loved it here, so that made it easy,” Hailee said.

Mia, a freshman, cites her sister’s transfer, granting Hailee an extra year of eligibility, as a big deciding factor for coming to SLU. “I knew that I would get two years with her instead of just one,” Mia said.

And Mia has been very pleased with her decision.

“It’s been great. She helped me with all of the transition stuff. She showed me around campus and where all of my classes are, and homesickness hasn’t really been a problem at all,” Mia said.

None of the siblings listed any cons with having each other on campus, but that doesn’t mean that some fierce sibling rivalries don’t exist.

“Oh, it can get pretty intense when we play against each other,” Hailee said. “Whenever we practice together we try to just hit around because real matches can get pretty serious pretty fast.”
The same goes for the Hendries.

“Yeah, we used to fight a lot when we played. Now it’s more of a mutual respect kind of a thing, but he still bothers me about the state championship,” PJ said.

PJ lost the high school state singles final in his junior and senior years; Jake however, was able to win the title during his senior year.

“He gets in my face a lot, but he’s a nut and I’m used to it now so I still try to be pretty nice to him,” PJ said.
Zych claims that the closeness of the siblings really aids the chemistry of the team.

“I think the family atmosphere that we have really allows everyone to relax. Everyone is in a great comfort level, which allows the team to focus,” Zych said.

This chemistry has resulted in wins on the court. The men’s team is currently 7-3, while the women’s team is 8-5. The men take on Southern Illinois at home on Mar. 19, while the women battle Southern Illinois at Edwardsville at home the same day.