The Daily continues its “Through My Eyes” series on the women’s tennis team with freshman Jessica Nguyen, fresh off of her finish as the singles runner-up in the Pac-10 Invitational last Sunday.

Enlarge
#gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/5940
Joel Lewenstein

JOEL LEWENSTEIN/The Stanford Daily Freshman Jessica Nguyen and the Cardinal will kick off the NCAA Tournament at home against Quinnipiac on May 12. Top-ranked Stanford will host the first and second rounds of the tournament and, for the first time, both men?s and women?s National Championship finals.

Why Stanford?

Obviously everyone has this idea of Stanford being the all-around greatest school ever. I had a great time on my recruiting trip, and I’d only heard the best things about the girls on the team, which is so important with the camaraderie and everything. I’d also heard great things about the coaches and the academics, of course. It was apparent that the girls on the team were really close, and I talked to girls on other teams and they said the Stanford team seems really close. At most schools, there’s a problem with a teammate, and that really hurts a team because you spend so much time together. That’s one of the greatest things now — I just always have the girls on the team to be there.

Having a mentor

At the very beginning of the year, Jess [Leck] and Amber [Liu] came up to Megan [Doheny] and me and said, ‘We’ve decided to make you our ‘minis’ because you two are exactly like us when we were freshmen.’ And omigod, we really are. A lot of the things we’ve done are super-similar — even our areas of study. It’s so great to have someone like Amber that I can really talk to about problems I’m running into or anything. A mentor, almost.

And Megan and Jess are so alike, too. Their families are really good friends, actually. When they were younger, the three-year age difference was kind of a big deal, so they’d see each other and knew each other a ton but wouldn’t really hang out. But now they are such good friends, really close. It helps that they’re both amazingly nice people!

Frosh bonding

Prior to Stanford, Megan and I had never run into each other at tournaments and stuff, even though we’re from the same region. But on the first day of athlete orientation, she came up and was like, ‘Jessica!’ and I was like, ‘Aaaahhh! Megan!’ and we just immediately bonded.

We’re always kind of out of it, because as freshmen we don’t really know what’s going on. Like today, Megan had a complete mental lapse and forgot to go to workout, but I was just like, ‘Ohhh freshmen, you know how it goes.’ We get along so well; she’s definitely one of my best friends here.

Senior pranks

The seniors do play pranks on us. Like for our flight to Hawaii, the seniors were like, ‘Try to dress nice because there might be some alumni there; don’t wear jeans.’ So our flight is at like 7 a.m., and I wake up early to get all dressed up. I’m wearing these wool trouser pants and nice jacket. And I’m on the Super Shuttle and we’re picking up Jess, and she comes out with her sweatpants on and I’m like, ‘Omigod what is going on.’ And they’re all like, ‘Hahaha, you look so cute.’ And then it kills me because when we get to Hawaii, it’s steaming hot and I’m wearing wool! Oh, and they make the freshmen carry the ball hoppers, and we have to check it as our luggage...I can’t wait to do this stuff to the freshmen next year.

My first NCAAs

It’s pretty intense to be going through my first NCAAs. I didn’t realize what a big deal it really is until I watched the draw on Wednesday. I’m really excited. I’ve kind of experienced it through my brother, because he’s three years ahead of me and plays for UCLA — and they won it last year. I didn’t get to see it, because I was in Asia for a tournament at the time, but I checked the results on the Internet in the lobby of our hotel and just started screaming with excitement for him. Everyone was just looking at me like, ‘What are you doing?’

This year, since the men’s and women’s tournaments are both here, my brother will be playing here, too, which will be great. I’ll get to see him and all my friends from juniors who play for other schools.

The woman behind it all

It’s ridiculous. You think coming to Stanford, the No. 1 team in the country, things are going to be run strictly, like this-this-this and then this every day. But Lele [Forood] is so laidback and just goes with the flow. Anything comes at her and she’s just like ‘Ohhh... okay.’ I think Frankie [Brennan, assistant coach] gets a little pissed off about it sometimes, but I’d so much rather have someone like Lele than someone who’s super-anal about things. Although now, right before NCAAs, she is getting a little frantic, which I guess is completely understandable.