March 27 found me in Pelham, Alabama, playing the National Women’s Singles and Doubles Championships. It was not the choice I wanted, but due to a health issue, I was unable to compete in singles. So it was full steam ahead in doubles. My doubles partner, Liane Bryson (from San Diego) and I are currently the number 1 Women’s Doubles 75 Team in the country. While we enjoy playing together and have solid results, we take each match seriously and play with intent.

We pushed through the first two rounds of the tournament to get to the finals. There, we faced a doubles team with a solid player who hits with 2 hands on both sides and her partner, who hits high lobs almost every shot except for her return of serve. We knew we could be in for a long fight. I had watched this same woman, the lobber, play a three-and-a-half-hour match the year prior. She was content to play no miss high ball tennis. No strategy … just no miss. Not on my list of positives. And a super long match was not in the cards for me.

Trying to outhit them or rush to the net was not the game plan. This was to be a strategic match.

As the match started, my partner served and volleyed. The lobber hit a regular return, but followed up the next ball with a very high lob over my head. Running back to retrieve this was definitely not high on the list of things I wanted to do, and since my partner had just run to the net after her serve, she was definitely not running back! We decided that having me stay back around the baseline would allow her to move in to volley without feeling she might have to turn around and run back to cover the ball over my head.

Knowing we wanted my partner to have options at net, as the comfortable baseliner on our team, my strategy was to hit not more than two of these high balls before slicing the ball down so that it landed around the service line. This not only allowed my partner to go to net, it also effectively brought the lobber to midcourt, where she was both unhappy and unable to hit the sky high balls. The next ball that I hit was then a hard drive, catching her as she retreated and allowing my partner to hover at the net to get a play. Our strategy kept the match from becoming tedious and frustrating and NOT too long.

We won Nationals — 6-3, 6-0!

I feel fortunate that when singles is not an option for me, I have still been able to play doubles. Tennis continues to offer me so much, and despite challenges, I plan to keep playing.