In just her freshman year at La Jolla High School, Alanna Sweeney has already collected some serious accolades in girls tennis.<\/p>\n
Though she fell short of a CIF San Diego Section individual title, Sweeney\u2019s rookie year saw her become the Western League singles champion, play to a 22-2 conference record, earn a sportsmanship award and finish the season on the all-CIF first team.<\/p>\n
Sweeney\u2019s individual league title came by winning one closely contested set and another that was more convincing.<\/p>\n
After leading 2-0 in the first set, Sweeney fell into a three-point deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was going really easy, so I took my foot off the gas pedal,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cAnd then I was down 5-2. Then I just had to lock in. I regained my focus and went back to thinking how I was up 2-0 before.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, Sweeney turned it around for a 7-5 win. In the second set, she rolled 6-0.<\/p>\n
Sweeney noted some key differences between the league round and the section tournament, where she lost in the semifinals this month. Notably, she said, the Western featured matches where she could gauge her opponents\u2019 strategies and weaknesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing how your opponent is going to play really helps you,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cBecause then you know what you\u2019re getting yourself into. If you don\u2019t know who you\u2019re playing, then anything can happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the semis, the levels are so much higher. I\u2019m playing against really good competitors and they\u2019re just as hungry to win the title as I am. The matches are so much \u2026 tighter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sweeney has played tennis for a decade and hopes to continue into her college years at a Division I school.<\/p>\n
One reason she\u2019s drawn to tennis is that it\u2019s a solo sport, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel \u2026 there\u2019s so much pressure playing in team sports and I feel like I\u2019m going to let my team down or something,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cBut with tennis, it\u2019s independent. I\u2019m on the court alone and I control everything. I control how well I do and how hard I work to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Girls tennis coach Charlie Recksieck praised Sweeney\u2019s abilities at such a young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou kind of forget she\u2019s so young because she\u2019s so accomplished,\u201d Recksieck said. \u201cYou can almost just watch her play and say \u2026 she\u2019s a senior and going to be looking at colleges. \u2026 She really is that good.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer game is terrific and she still loves playing. So the sky\u2019s the limit tennis-wise. She\u2019s got every shot in her bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recksieck and assistant coach Phifer Crute added that Sweeney is a great teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome players who are as good as her \u2026 you can see them being a prima donna,\u201d Recksieck said. \u201cBut she\u2019s not at all. She just made friends with everybody on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boys head coach Jack Kruger is similarly impressed with Sweeney.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s light years ahead,\u201d Kruger said. \u201cShe basically plays an adult game at age 14. She\u2019s got many different gears in her game where she can chip the ball and then she can come over it and get a really heavy topspin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe loves the game,\u201d he added. \u201cIf she continues to play, she\u2019s going to do great things. And the most important thing is she\u2019s very, very coachable. She listens and she\u2019s happy. Her parents have done a great job raising her.\u201d<\/p>\n
La Jolla Athlete of the Week features athletes from all sports in high school (La Jolla High, The Bishop\u2019s School, La Jolla Country Day School) and other local youth sports. We\u2019re looking not only for the stars of competition but also for student-athletes who set an example for teamwork, academic achievement and\/or community involvement. Please email your nominations, and a way to reach your nominees, to Editor Rob Vardon at robert.vardon@lajollalight.com. \u2666<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In just her freshman year at La Jolla High School, Alanna Sweeney has already collected some serious accolades…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2356,41084,41082,156509,7155,7156,99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-300811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-la-jolla","10":"tag-la-jolla-light","11":"tag-la-jolla-light-sports","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-county","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}