By Keenan Lo
Executive Staff
The Sewanee Purple’s Athlete of the Week is Christina Merchant (C’18). Merchant, which plays for Sewanee’s lady tennis team, has been one of the leaders for the team this spring, who started the season ranked 11th in the nation and are currently ranked 12th.
Merchant said of the team’s season, “We are off to a good start. We lost to Emory and Wash. St. Louis, but it was early in the season and we fought hard across the team. We are getting better with each match and still figuring out who is going to play where.” Merchant, who plays third singles on the team, most recently defeated Nicole Parrish 6-0, 6-2 in a 9-0 victory against Piedmont University. When asked about her ability to defeat her opponents, Merchant credits her “fitness,” which she uses to “outlast girls.”
After the victory over Piedmont, Merchant credited the team, saying, “We have the same approach to every match, regardless of who we play. It was great to see all of our hard work pay off, especially against a worthy team like Piedmont. We’ve been working a lot with fellow Men’s players, Jack Gray (C’19) and Eric Roddy (C’16) with doubles, and it’s really starting to make a difference.”
With such an impressive ranking, and victories to back the ranking up, Merchant and the Lady Tigers are a team to watch this spring.
All stats and info, unless otherwise noted, are courtesy of sewaneetigers.com.
Photo courtesy of Christina Merchant