Senior team leader to leave void

ATHENS, Ga. “”mdash; After spending part of the night before the NCAA Championship match in a local hospital, Alex McGoodwin took the courts at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex to compete in her last-ever dual match. For the senior, there was nothing she would let stop her from competing on the biggest stage in women’s collegiate tennis.

“No matter how sick she is and how tired she is, she puts everything out there,” freshman Stephanie Wetmore said. “She gave it everything she could, and she knows its her last year and she has no regrets.”

A day after clinching the Bruins’ quarterfinal victory over No. 4 Florida, the senior captain suffered from dehydration after UCLA toppled No. 1 Stanford. She needed to be taken to the hospital where she received intravenous therapy before being discharged to rejoin the team at its hotel. McGoodwin showed no signs of any problems when the Bruins started the match, as she and sophomore partner Ashley Joelson rolled to an 8-3 victory on Court 2 after being broken early, earning a spot on the All-Tournament Team at the No. 2 doubles position.

“I didn’t feel tired at all,” she said. “It’s the finals and the adrenaline kicks in and you just go out there and play tennis.”

“She has really come back strong and she has won a ton of matches for us,” UCLA coach Stella Sampras Webster said of the team’s lone senior. “Without her, we wouldn’t have been here.”

And when it came time for singles, McGoodwin did what she has made seem commonplace in her matches, coming back from an early 3-0 deficit to capture the first set. But her opponent soon began hitting shots that she couldn’t get her racket on, forcing her to change her strategy. Goodwin eventually lost in three sets. Though she was unable to capture a NCAA Championship title in her senior year, McGoodwin has been through her fair shares of ups and downs in her four years and appreciates what she and her team have accomplished this season.

“Today was disappointing because we would’ve loved to have won, but this week has really been unbelievable,” McGoodwin said. “We’ve played some amazing tennis.”

It isn’t necessarily her tennis skill that will be remembered and missed next season after the senior, considered one of the best No. 5 singles players in the nation, graduates, but her leadership off the court and during practices, as well as her dedication to improvement.

“She’s always hitting extra, working out extra, and doing extra foot work and agility drills,” junior Elizabeth Lumpkin said. “She’s a great doubles player and we’re really going to miss her.

“There are three of us juniors and we’re going to take her example and we’ll carry on her philosophy of putting in the hard work and knowing it’s going to pay off.”

Though Lumpkin and fellow juniors Tracy Lin and Riza Zalameda will attempt to fill the void when McGoodwin leaves, the team knows that it will be very difficult to do.

“We’re not going to try to find someone to replace her shoes, because it’s not possible,” Wetmore said. “Alex went out like a champion, and that’s what I’ll always remember.”

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