Editor’s Note: With the coronavirus outbreak shutting down spring sports, The Republic is featuring senior athletes from Columbus East, Columbus North and Hauser whose final seasons were affected by the decision over the course of the spring.
The seniors on the Hauser girls tennis team were disappointed when the season was canceled, but according to Jets coach Molly Crabtree, Melanie Taylor was the senior that took the news the hardest.
The senior had set pretty strong goals for herself for the spring — one of which was to win the Mid-Hoosier Conference crown after winning the title during the volleyball season. However, with the COVID-19 outbreak shutting down spring sports this year, Taylor’s tennis career abruptly came to a halt.
Taylor said it’s hard not being out there with her team one final time on the court.
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“That was probably the hardest part, not getting out there playing with my teammates, but I knew it was the right course of action to take during this time so I’m kind of bummed out,” Taylor said.
Taylor was anxious to start her senior year of tennis because she was fully healthy to play a full season.
The Jet suffered shoulder subluxation her junior year in a match against Greensburg early in the season and had to sit out much of the season. She came back a month later against Indian Creek, just in time for the conference and sectional matches to close out the year.
“I never really served the way that I wanted to by the end of my junior year,” Taylor said. “It was a huge goal for me to just nail my serve. I really wanted an aggressive serve, and that was something I definitely needed to put a lot of work in the offseason.”
Taylor said her mother Christy was the one that helped introduce her to tennis. She said that her mother and her mother’s friends would all get together to play tennis, and she became instantly hooked with the exposure.
“I love tennis because I can be outside, and I can just forget about everything about the day and just play a solid game,” Taylor said. “It’s also something we really bonded with, too.”
In addition to playing tennis in the spring, Taylor played volleyball in the fall. Her biggest accomplishment in volleyball came as a sophomore in 2017 when the Jets made a historic run to the Class A state finals, finishing as the runner-up.
Taylor enjoys playing both sports, but said there are differences between the two for her.
“If I had an off-day (in tennis), or someone else had an off-day, it wouldn’t affect my play as much on the court like volleyball would have,” Taylor said. “Tennis was almost more like a hobby than it is an actual sport, but volleyball has all the competitiveness with it more than tennis. Volleyball is super-amped up on the competitive side.”
No matter what sport she played, Taylor always had a competitive drive.
“She’s got one of the best attitudes towards everything. She was so devastated not playing this year. She’s just always willing to listen to anything I tell her, and she’s very easy to coach,” Crabtree said. “I know when she goes out there that she’s going to try her very best and probably win because she is very competitive.”
Taylor is headed to Indiana University in the fall, but hasn’t decided on a specific major just yet. She has narrowed it down to journalism, psychology, filmography or production. She said she would like to continue playing tennis and volleyball and will look to get into intramurals and also connect with other students to play tennis.
Taylor is thankful for her time as a Jet and having fun with her teammates.
“We really enjoyed our practices,” Taylor said. “We balanced between working really hard and goofing off. I have such a wonderful time with my teammates because we all just have really good chemistry.”
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Q: Can you describe how you felt when you heard that your season was canceled?
"I was super disappointed, and what was really hard to accept is how much fun I knew tennis was for me. The team that I got to play with is unbelievably awesome. I even thought how badly I wanted to have a match with a nice opponent because that was really a difference between tennis and volleyball is that I really enjoyed the competition and how civil it was. I was disappointed, and heartbroken is the best way to describe how I felt when I knew my tennis season was over."
Q: What is your best memory with the program?
"I can’t really think of one that tops the rest, but probably in a match I had my sophomore year, it was my last match of the year, and it went on for like three-plus hours. It was the longest one I’ve had. That was a really fun memory, and I won’t forget that."
Q: What will you miss most about your school and team?
"Probably just how much we laughed. I looked forward to practices every day because no matter how hard or how hot it was outside, I was going to have a really good time with the girls I’m going to play with. Just be alongside play with my teammates — that’s what I’ll probably miss the most."
Q: What lesson(s) did you learn from your time with the program?
"When I was playing doubles, communication was huge, and so was feedback, and positive criticism is huge if you want to win a game playing with somebody else. When you’re playing singles, I learned about being kind and uplifting to yourself because when I’m playing singles, I don’t have anyone else on the court to lift me up all the time after every point, and that is even a bigger thing I’ll carry on outside of tennis."
Q: What is your final message to the team?
"Just give it all you’ve got, really enjoy all the moments and appreciate every point you get. Every point that you get in your set is really going to make a difference later on. Have fun, be kind to each other and work your hardest together as a team because they’ll be a family for a month of two. If you make with what you have, it’ll be a really good time … and ‘Go Jets’ because I’ll always be a Jet."
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