Team: Women’s tennis
Hometown: Santa Monica, Calif.
Major: History
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Noor Naseer (NN): How long have you been playing tennis?
Erica Ekstrand (EE): I’ve been playing since I was 6 years old. My parents actually tried to get me and my twin sister into the sport at 5. We didn’t really take to it, so they tried again a year later, and I’ve been playing since then.
NN: What is your favorite part about being captain?
EE: I love being able to set an example of leadership on the court, off the court, [and] being able to help out wherever I can. I’m an older sister to five younger siblings, so I feel like I’ve always tried to be there to help out. I love being able to find ways to help my teammates, because in the past, I have led my team from the top court and tried to be a motivating force during practice.
This season, I hurt my leg, and I had to find ways to contribute off the court in a way that was still a leadership role. During one of our matches, I was one of the coaches, and I learned a lot from being able to watch the matches from the side. I was actively involved in finding strategies and hyping up my teammates. It felt great when my teammates told me that I made a big difference during that weekend.
NN: You mentioned that you went to the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford. What was it like going away for a year and not playing Williams tennis?
EE: That was definitely the one thing that made the decision tough — that it was for a full year. Usually when people on the team study abroad, they leave during the fall because the spring is our main season. But there’s no Oxford program that goes for one semester, so I decided that I was just going to have a new experience.
I joined the tennis team there and got to see a completely different look at tennis. We didn’t really have a coach. It was very student-led and organized — it’s more like a club. We went on a 10-day trip to Japan, and we got to play Japanese schools. It was a lot of fun. I think it’s great that you can learn things about tennis from different people all across the world. I improved on my net game and my doubles a lot, and I’m excited to bring that to the court this year. I’m really excited to be back and have a different role on the team, meet a lot of my new teammates, and go out with a bang.
NN: Tennis is a really small team. How do you think that influences on and off court dynamics?
EE: I think that everyone is really close to each other. I think that helps us a lot when we’re on court — we can feel how someone else is doing on their court and try to help them and cheer for them or tell them, “Come on, you got it.” I think that everyone on the team feels that this type of support on the court and off the court helps us to play better. It makes us enjoy our practices a lot more. And for me, one of the best parts of Williams is being able to go out almost every day and play a sport that you love with the people that you love.
NN: Do you have a most memorable college match that you’ve played?
EE: We were in California for spring break my sophomore year. I had a lot of physical injuries. I hurt my shoulder and had to take several weeks off, and then it didn’t really get better, so then I got three cortisone shots. I needed to play the matches, and I hadn’t played tennis for nine weeks. I didn’t know what to expect, but my team and coach supported me. So I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna try my best.”
It was so hot outside — open court, no shade, in California. It was a long match because I couldn’t really put the ball away that well, because I hadn’t played for nine weeks, so it was a longer match. First set: tie break. I won the tiebreak. Long story short — I had heat exhaustion, and I couldn’t stand straight. I was really struggling in that match, and my teammates were there for me, and they were cheering me on. They got me through the match, and I ended up winning.
Even though a lot was going wrong in that match, it shows how much of a family this team is. We’re not just a team because we all like to play tennis. We’re also a team because we care for each other, and we support each other. That’s what carried me through, so I’m never going to forget that match.
