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5.8.08
From left, Jennifer Gennaoui and Jenna Tudor
Senior duo takes women's tennis
to NCAA Regional for fourth straight season
Commencement is just days away for Erskine College seniors, but for Jennifer Gennaoui and Jenna Tudor, there remained one more piece of business besides exams.
The senior women's tennis team players led the Lady Fleet into the NCAA Division II Regional today against Francis Marion in Florence, capping a remarkable four-year stretch of success on the court.
Gennaoui, a sports management major, came out of Glassboro High School in New Jersey, while Tudor arrived at Erskine from Winchester Community High School in Indiana. They first met at freshman orientation four years ago and eventually became best friends.
The two took different paths to their place on the Erskine team-- Coach Calhoun Parr knew Tudor's high school coach and heard about Gennaoui from the grandfather of another Erskine player who had watched her play in high school.
The women bonded, Gennaoui said, because they were both from places about 12 hours away from Due West and they had no family or friends nearby.
Tudor, an elementary education major, recalled she had never been to South Carolina, but Gennaoui had visited the state to play tennis and during vacations. Tudor said she chose Erskine because it was "small and comfortable."
Location was a big factor for Gennaoui in choosing Erskine. "The weather brought me here," she said. "I found Erskine and felt like that's where God was leading me."
Gennaoui had an immediate impact on the Erskine team, challenging for the number one singles spot early in her freshman year and winning it. Tudor was a walk-on and earned a spot on the team.
They stuck together as freshmen and wound up as roommates by the time their sophomore year rolled around.
Winning the conference championship during their freshman season was pretty heady stuff, particularly for Gennaoui, whose high school team was not of championship caliber.
The challenge then, according to Tudor, was to win year after year, especially after the conference win streak total started to climb.
For Gennaoui, the fourth title was almost a relief. "I felt a lot of pressure at number one and as the player of the year," she said. "After conference, I felt like a weight had been lifted off."
Tudor said the more consecutive conference matches the team won, the more motivation it was for rival teams.
"It was hard to play to win rather than not to lose," she said.
Although the pressure was intense and the team faced adversity throughout the year, the Lady Fleet captured their fourth straight conference title with relative ease.
"Everything went perfect as a team and personally," Gennaoui said.
As their careers came to a close at Erskine, Gennaoui and Tudor had led a team that won 51 consecutive Conference Carolinas matches and captured four straight conference regular season and tournament championships.
"In my view, both these players are great players," Parr said. "I call them great players because of what their team accomplished during their careers. Truly great players are able to influence their team to play at the highest level possible. Both of these players did influence their team to accomplish great levels of performance."
Individually, the young women compiled amazing records. Gennaoui was 66-16 overall in singles during her career, 34-4 in conference play in singles. In doubles, Gennaoui was 79-14 overall, 45-3 in conference play. Tudor was 60-14 overall in singles play, 36-2 in singles conference play. She was 78-12 in overall doubles play and a remarkable 47-0 in doubles conference matches.
Gennaoui was Conference Carolinas freshman of the year in 2004-05 and in her sophomore, junior and senior years, she was voted Conference Carolinas player of the year. She was first team all-conference in each of her four years, captured all-conference tournament player honors in 2006-07 and was conference tournament MVP this season. Gennaoui also captured Erskine's Jake Todd Award, the highest honor a Flying Fleet student-athlete can receive, during the recent athletic banquet.
Tudor was an all-conference tournament performer in 2004-05 and 2007-08 and was named Team MVP in each of the last two years. She has also been in charge of the team's "Tennis Grandparents" program for the last two years.
The difference between winning and losing as it relates to the Erskine women's tennis team, the women said, is the coach.
"He recruits and brings in good players," Gennaoui said. "The time and effort he puts in makes you want to give your time and effort to do your best and not let him down."
Tudor agreed.
"Once he gets us in, he treats us all so well so we can focus and so we can win," she said. "He cares so much about the program and about us."
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