SPORTS

For a Wyoming tennis star, an unexpected shot at MSU

Cody J Tucker
Lansing State Journal

Julia Fenn never lost a tennis match in high school. She never even dropped a set.

MSU chemical engineering freshman Julia Fenn from Sheridan, Wyoming at the MSU Tennis Complex Feb. 8, 2017.  She won four straight state championships in high school with a record of 58-0.   She was offered a spot on the varsity team after being discovered playing club tennis by one of the pros and MSU's head coach.

She was the first girl in her home state of Wyoming to win four straight state championships. Fenn was so dominant that she was forced to practice with the boys.

On Jan. 22, the college freshman took the court for the first time as a member of the Michigan State University tennis team and won in straight sets.

The only shocker that Sunday afternoon was that she was there.

Last spring, Fenn had all but given up on her lifelong dream of playing college tennis. The recruiters were sparse. The offers weren't quite what she had in mind. Her dream school, the University of Wyoming, showed little interest, asking her to walk on.

She thought she had proven herself, but she was just going to be a normal student.

“I just decided to focus on school,” Fenn said with a shy smile. “I was planning on just playing club tennis.”

A full-ride scholarship given only to students from Wyoming and the Upper Peninsula brought Fenn to MSU. She was set to dive head first into a chemical engineering degree. Tennis would only be a hobby.

But it didn’t take long for MSU tennis pro Diane Selke to take notice of the tall, curly-haired girl with the powerful back swing who was practicing and playing at the tennis center on campus.

Fenn practiced with the club team almost daily and hit balls on the side with anyone who had time. Selke called Fenn the "ultimate competitor."

She made a call to first-year MSU head coach Kim Bruno to come check out the freshman. She figured the Spartans could use another healthy body, not to mention the fact that Fenn looked like the real deal.

Bruno fell in love with her style of play and the way Fenn went about her business. She tried her out just before the winter break, matching her up against both male and female players. She liked what she saw. But after a quick meeting with Fenn, she knew she had much more than just an athlete on her hands.

“Honestly her character is unbelievable,” Bruno said. “She is a kid that is grateful, and one of the nicest human beings you could be around. Along with all of that, she is a great player."

And so she offered Fenn the opportunity of a lifetime.

"I couldn't believe it," Fenn said. "It's just a perfect situation."

Now, Fenn is the ninth member of the MSU varsity roster, and she's setting personal goals again. She is a Division I athlete, a Big Ten athlete, a pair of realities she has been trying to get used to the past two weeks.

Her mom is still trying to wrap her mind around it, too.

“We were just so excited for her,” Armella Fenn said from her home in Wyoming. “She has worked so hard and has such a passion for tennis. The sport has given her so much confidence and independence.”

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MSU chemical engineering freshman Julia Fenn from Sheridan, Wyoming, volleys at the MSU Tennis Complex Feb. 8, 2017.  She won four straight state championships in high school with a record of 58-0.   She was offered a spot on the varsity team after being discovered playing club tennis by one of the pros and MSU's head coach.

Sheridan is a city of fewer than 18,000 people nestled in the shadows of the Big Horn Mountains on the plains of northern Wyoming. It’s is the sixth largest city in the least-populated state in the country. Cattle ranching, railroads and coal mining are its calling card.

As in many small towns in middle America, high school sports are very much a source of pride and tradition. The Sheridan High School Broncs football team won back-to-back 4A state titles in 2015 and 2016. The girls’ basketball and swim team, along with the boys’ golf team, have combined for 21 state titles.

Fenn’s historic run was not lost on the community -- or the state.

She was named the female Tennis Player of the Year by the state’s biggest newspaper and was featured in the “Faces in the crowd” section of the November 2016 issue of Sports Illustrated.

“Wyoming just lifts you up,” she said of the support she has received from back home. “Everyone is so excited for me.”

She also knows that coming from Wyoming played a major role in college recruiters avoiding her.

Wyoming is not known for tennis. In fact, only 16 schools offer the sport, and the season lasts seven weeks. Fenn had to travel hundreds of miles to get in extra work on the courts of Cheyenne, Casper or even Billings, Montana, during the winter and spring months. She also competed for the United States Tennis Association during the summer.

“Everywhere we went was at least an hour away,” Armella Fenn said.

Julia Fenn said some of the best indoor courts and competition were more than five hours away. And she didn’t mind the travel one bit.

“My mom and I spent so many hours in the car together,” she said. “If the roads were good, we would go anywhere. The population of players is so small, when you find someone to hit with, you have to go.”

When Fenn wasn’t on the road, she was at home working with local tennis pro Lorna Brooks. The two have been working together since Fenn was 8 years old.

In the warm, dry summer months, they spent countless hours pounding the outdoor courts. The long Wyoming winters forced them into church gyms or the Sheridan County YMCA.

Fenn came in as a determined rookie, Brooks said, and left as a possible professional prospect. She wasn’t shocked that Fenn made the team at MSU.

“I told her that she was good enough to go pro, eventually,” Brooks said. “I realized early on that she had the fundamentals, tenacity, endurance and all of the things that are necessary to make it.

“I knew she was good enough to play Division I tennis.”

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MSU chemical engineering freshman Julia Fenn from Sheridan, Wyoming, volleys at the MSU Tennis Complex Feb. 8, 2017.  She won four straight state championships in high school with a record of 58-0.   She was offered a spot on the varsity team after being discovered playing club tennis by one of the pros and MSU's head coach.

Fenn said nerves were not an issue when she stepped on the court for the first time in a Spartan uniform in late January.  

“I had nothing to lose,” she said with a grin.

She quickly took a lead in the opening frame and never looked back. The second set was a different story. Fenn built a 5-1 lead but let the next couple of points slip away.

The moment had finally caught up to her.

“I just couldn’t believe that I was on the court with actual college players,” Fenn said. “They are all at such a high level.”

She settled in and finished off the match 6-3, capping her first collegiate win. Bruno said Fenn looked every bit the part.

“The thing I like about her and makes her fit in so well is the way she competes for every single point,” Bruno said. “As a coach, that’s all you can ask for.

“There is definitely a reason that she is here.”

Fenn said she loves mathematics and numbers. Right now, the math is simple: She is 1-0 as a Spartan, and she is gaining confidence.

“I am getting there,” Fenn said. “Everyone is still above me, but I think after this semester, I will be able to hang. We will see how it goes.

"It’s been an adjustment, but a fun one."

Contact Cody Tucker at (517) 377-1070 or cjtucker@lsj.com