Wins, Loses and Everything in Between

From Thursday to Sunday, the team was in Atlanta for the HBCU Nationals. In attendance were 14 different HBCUs from across the states, and we were all competing in this 4-day tournament. Now, in tennis, the rule for most tournaments is that you are guaranteed 2 matches. This means if you lose the first round, it wasn't a total waste of time to drive 8 hours, yes, 8 hours in the van, to come to the tournament. The first day, Thursday we woke up early, got to the courts for warm up at 7, and I was ready to play my match at 10:30, but when I went to check in, my girl was nowhere to be found. She was ineligible to play, which meant I had to wait till 7 pm for my next match. I already knew it was going to be a long day because the boys played even later than I did, but I was not expecting to play that late. I waited all day, anxious, nervous, and so excited to play. Then finally it was time, it was the same girl from Florida A&M that I played my freshman year, we got on the court under the lights, and my adrenaline was pumping, my focus was spot on, and after what felt so short, I won in a third-set tiebreaker, and I cried. I shook her hand was walking to the back and the emotions flooded me, the first win after my mom died, the first win after being out for a year from injury, the first win at this tournament after crashing last year. It all hit me like a wave that felt so good because I felt mom right there with me the whole time. She was watching from behind the fence, cheering me, telling me to move my feet and I felt it all. Unfortunately, the next day after such high emotions, not enough sleep and the girl I played against making it to the finals I couldn't pull of another win, but I am so happy to have gotten one really great match this weekend and doubles that was fairly decent. But I am so happy to be back where I can rest and sleep in my own comfy room and bed!

Now, aside from the tennis part of this week and weekend I wanted to talk about one more thing. At this tournament we had to have security, 10 police cars, K-9s, SWAT and their military grade car and drones all surveying the facility we were playing at. It was honestly both scary and comforting to know that they were there before something happened and not responding. Now, all of this is happening because of some threats that were sent out to the HBCUs. There were calls and messages sent to the schools which caused several of the colleges to close and/or lock down for the day in the past several weeks. Ours was not in the list, thankfully but due to the tournament having that many HBCUs in one place they had to take some precautions which we were thankful for. To read more about this situation, I have posted some links below:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/09/11/hbcus-lockdown-threats/86094019007/

https://thehilltoponline.com/2025/09/22/multiple-hbcus-receive-campus-threats-sparking-mass-concern/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/11/us/hbcu-lockdown-potential-threats