Who Run the (Tennis) World? Girls!

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Photo credit: Rutgers University–Camden Athletics

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, the competition season for Rutgers–Camden’s Women’s Tennis team is just beginning. In the tennis world, women have “[shown] that whatever a man can do, a woman can do as well,” sophomore Ashton Sirko says. However, Sirko, a sophomore business major, is quick to highlight that “in athletics, a lot of things still have not really changed for women, […] there’s still a lot of challenges that women face in this world.” However, she highlights the importance of women in tennis, saying that “women have had a very large impact on sports, especially tennis,” going on to emphasize how women have changed the world of tennis. She cites tennis legend Serena Williams as an example, saying that “she’s really set amazing standards [for] women and amazing goals for all women, […] not only tennis players to look up to and strive to be.”

The importance of having women in sports for young athletes to look up to was highlighted by all three players interviewed. Indeed, all three emphasized how women in their lives have impacted their game and their love of the sport. Freshman Alyssa Peacock comes from a tennis family–her grandfather, John O’Grady, was ranked 21 in the world during his tennis career, and she says that her mother, who also played, “inspired me to play tennis and I [also] wanted to, you know, carry on the tradition.” Sirko was also inspired by a female family member to play, but in her case it was her great-aunt who encouraged her parents to put her in tennis, and co-captain Katie Moore was inspired by her mother, saying that she didn’t always enjoy the sport but “I grew to love it a lot,” and is now not only a player, but also a coach.

Moore’s greatest hurdle in athletics has been getting others to take her seriously, saying “when I coach a boys tennis team, they may not [think] young girl is as intelligent as a male coach, or something along those lines, but once I start coaching, they’re like “dang, okay she knows what shes talking about”. This struggle to be taken as seriously as their male counterparts was shared by her teammates–Peacock says “we’re kind of pushed to the sides sometimes, when it comes to sports–like oh we don’t get paid as much, we don’t get shown as much in media, and I think that needs to change because we are just as great as men.” She thinks for a moment, laughs and continues “[we’re] even better, in my opinion.”

Balancing life as an athlete and student is tough, sophomore nursing major Moore says, and shouts out Assistant Director of Athletics, Haley Shinn. Moore highlights Shinn’s importance to the team, and Rutgers–Camden athletics as a whole, saying that she “works with us to get uniforms right because it is different having a male coach and being a [female] athlete, because they may not know that these are too short or these aren’t flattering or this and that, so it’s nice to be able to have that resource where I do have someone to go to and […] they make us feel heard and [are] accommodating to the things that we need as women in sports.”

Sirko is also involved with the Rutgers–Camden Athletics Administration–as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), which finds her “sit[ting] in on a lot of different meetings” and having her voice heard on policies and rules within the university that impact student-athletes.

Peacock says that being a female athlete is “difficult, because of all of the backlash that women face in general, but it’s also an empowering thing to be able to play with other like minded women on the court.” Moore echoes this sentiment, saying “it can feel very rewarding. I have a lot on my plate–I’m very, very busy, but being able to come out here with some of my closest friends and just have a lot of fun, travel together, and just make memories […] it can be really rewarding.”

Sirko also emphasizes how important it is to be around other female athletes, contrasting her experience on the tennis team with her experience as a golfer in high school, saying “that, as women we can do a lot of amazing things, but there’s still a lot that could be done to really make things fair and equal for women.”