She might be a little down, but by no means is John F. Kennedy tennis player Laurencia Lee out of chances to get to the Division II state tennis tournament.
During the singles district matches at Harvard Park in Canton on Friday, Lee split her two matches, which qualifies her for today's elimination round for a chance at the fifth and final spot to head to the state tourament in Columbus.
"When you get out there, you have to adjust to weather and your opponent," Lee said. "So once I got into my game plan and started executing I was able to start playing better."
Lee's day started a little rough as she dropped her first set to Mayana Ravishankar of Hawken, 6-3. But after that, Lee was able to find her groove and starting hitting her shots. She rallied back and defeated Ravishankar in the final two sets, 6-4, 6-0, to advance to the second round.
"She was having some trouble finding her groove," Kennedy coach Laura Kolovich said. "But she was able to come back. She figured out what she needed to do."
However, Lee wasn't able to bounce back in her second round like she did in the first. The Kennedy senior lost both sets to Rocky River's Isabel Quinones.
"She definitely knew where she wanted to put the ball," Lee said. "She hits a hard ball and her serve was nice. When you go to district, you know the level of competition you're going to see. I was expecting that in the second round."
But with her victory in the first round, Lee is still able to grab the fifth and final spot to the state tournament. She will have to beat Adrian Young of Orange in her first match, then win a second match to move on.
This isn't the first time Lee's been in this positon. As a sophomore, she advanced to second-day play in doubles. Having experience at this level of competition, Lee knows what she has to do to reach a level she hasn't yet reached - the state tournament.
"I'm going to go up there and execute my game plan and hopefully be successful," Lee said. "Some winners don't have more talent, but they have more desire. So I'm going to go out there and have the most desire to win and hopefully it pays off."
Lee's teammates, the doubles pair of Megan Guliano and Maria Stroup weren't as successful as Lee. The pair lost in straight sets on Friday, 3-6, 3-6 to the team of Andreja Didovic and Mary Brigid Joyce of Notre Dame Cathedral Latin.
