Women’s tennis T-Ring Reflections – pending
The following T-Ring reflection is paraphrased from an article written by Trent Freeman for the Cactus. Trent’s article is below.
Lucie Ludvigova’s mental toughness helped her reach the Longhorns by a circuitous route. In her early years, she was barred from playing in U.S. tournaments by the Czech government, but she still managed to receive a world ranking as 28th in the juniors bracket. In 1991 she won the Czech National Indoor Championship. A year later, she was playing at Midland Junior College and won the flight II national championship. She then transferred to Grand Canyon University in New Mexico, where she won the Division II national championship. Her success piqued the interest of the UT Tennis coach Jeff Moore, and a year later, she joined the Longhorn team.
Lucie hit the ground running. In college tennis team matches are played in the spring. Most coaches view individual tournaments in the fall as an extension of practice. It was one hell of a practice schedule for Lucie. Lucie dominated by nearly sweeping all three major college tournaments. She advance to the finals the clay court championship then wins both the All-American an indoor championships.
Just three months after joining the Longhorns, Lucie Ludvigova grabbed the nation’s #1 ranking in women’s collegiate tennis. Coach Moore said, “Lucie could be the best player in Lady Longhorn tennis history.” “She competes at another level mentally.”
She was ITA singles All American 1994 and 1995, Conference Player of the year in 1993, and All-Conference in singles and doubles in 1993 and singles in 1994. Below is her acceptance speech as a 2016 HOH inductee.
Kelly Pace
She’s still the winningest player in school history (152 career victories and a 42-4 record in singles finals), was the team’s MVP in 1992, ’94 and ’95, was named Southwest Conference Player of the Year and the NCAA’s National Senior Player of the Year in ’95.
Kelly is in the Longhorn Hall of Honor.
Kelly was a gifted athlete with a disciplined work ethic. In tennis, she was An All-American and one of the top 150 players in the world. Kelly was also a good recreational golfer. Two years after retiring from tennis she was competing in golf tournaments defeating LPGA Tour veterans.
Kelly Pace is the only player to start in the singles lineup for two Longhorn NCAA championship teams. She is a Longhorn Hall of Honor inductee. Her tennis style was that of a grinder who beat down her opponent. As a freshman, she was #3 in singles on a team that advanced to the finals of the NCAA championship. As a sophomore, she was #2 in singles on the first Horns national championship team. In her junior year, she was scheduled to be the #1 singles player when she injured her left wrist.
The doctor said she would no longer be able to use her left wrist on her two-handed backhand. The strength of her tennis game. Instead she would have to resort to a one-hand backhand. This decision dismantled the strength of her power game. Many people would have viewed this development as career-ending. Instead, Kelly and her coach chose to view this dilemma as a setback with upside opportunity. With the help of Coach Moore, Kelly was able to transition her game from back hand power to forehand power. She learned to use her backhand as the volley to set up her weaponized forehand.
