Sonya Soeder '22 Recruiting Profile

I’ve played tennis since I was eight and ever since last year I’ve wanted to play in college. I've been playing for a club team since I was eleven and continued to play up until I was fourteen. When I started as a freshman in high school there were fifty girls on the tennis team.  I ended up being number 13, as the highest-ranked freshman. Going forward I played both varsity and JV matches. My sophomore year, I decided I wanted to try out for a singles position, and I won a challenge match for the third singles spot (by a landslide no less). After playing just two matches that year, our first singles player got injured, and I ended up playing second singles for the rest of the season. I ended my sophomore season with a personal win/lose final as 8-4. Also in my sophomore season, I managed to beat my club doubles partner (that I had played with for years) at a match my school had against her team. This past season, my junior season, I expected to be bumped down to doubles because a nationally ranked freshman was coming in to play. After playing singles for the year prior, I knew I did not want to give it up. I played a challenge match against the previous second singles girl and beat her (again in a landslide). I ended up keeping my third singles spot and finished my season with a personal win/loss score of 7-2. I also managed to defeat two schools that I have previously lost to my sophomore year. In both my sophomore and junior seasons I have qualified for our PAC championships. Sophomore year, I was the furthest to move forward in the singles tournament from my school. Junior year because of covid, both tournaments took place at the same time (singles and doubles), so I only had the opportunity to compete in the doubles portion. The second singles player and I did very well in the first round and then got out second round to the future winners of the doubles tournament (those same girls also ended up being finalists for the state. My senior season has been going great. I qualified again for our PAC championship singles tournament and our PAC championship for doubles. My doubles partner and I did extremely well in the tournament this year, placing third behind the 2020 state champs team, and the 2020 doubles state finalist. We will be moving forward to the district tournamen, and competing next week. I’m a hard worker, both academically and competitively. I’m always looking to improve my skills and performance in tennis. Getting critiques and tips has always been important to me because I take direction well, which I believe sets me apart from other players.