Published: Nov. 21, 2015
Duo works through habits
STORY BY NICHOLAS DETTMANN ■
DAILY NEWS
When West Bend East’s Lizzy Bensen was moving from singles
to doubles after her freshman year, she was told by a Suns tennis coach — when
she turned 18 — to get a tattoo that read: “The net is your friend.”
She never got the tattoo, but she got the message. Her
then-new doubles partner Hailee Dassow also taught her the importance of playing
at the net in doubles.
“I realized coming to the net is a huge advantage in
doubles,” Bensen said. “I never really used to come to the net.”
The same went for Melina Schaetz. So when Schaetz, a twotime
WIAA state qualifier in singles, moved to doubles before this season, guess
what the first lesson to Schaetz was?
“I think getting up to the net is huge for any doubles
team,” Bensen said. “Coming to the net ends points a lot quicker. Our main
focus was we have to come up to the net right away.”
For Schaetz, it was almost like an out-of-body experience.
“With the doubles strategy, it was definitely one of the
things I hadn’t learned before,” she said.
Schaetz had someone to lean on, another advantage gained in
doubles.
“When I started playing doubles, she was very confident on
the court whereas I wasn’t at first,” Schaetz said. “Her confidence gradually
leaked into me.”
Once armed with confidence, the chemistry grew and the
victories piled up.
This season, Bensen and Schaetz went 20-5, won the sectional
championship and qualified for the state tournament. They’ve also been selected
as the Daily News’ Girls Tennis Doubles Team of the Year.
“I think they obviously fed off each other,” said Tom
Schaetz, East’s coach. “They gelled well. They had a good demeanor and were
good competitors.”
For Bensen, it is the second time she’s been honored as the
Daily News’ doubles Team of the Year. In 2013, Bensen was recognized with
Dassow.
“Lizzy, she’s a scrapper,” Tom said. “She’s going to find a
way to win and sometimes it might not be the prettiest, but it’s about finding
a way to win.” He knew early on Bensen and Melina could be a special pairing.
“They both had camaraderie with each other, which is
important,” Tom said. “They weren’t similar tennis players. They brought
different strengths to the table and that really gelled well. You could see
that in the first week.”
Coach saw it, but the players didn’t, at least right away.
“It took a couple matches for me and Lizzy to fully click,” Melina said. “It
takes a while to learn each other’s styles and how we play and develop a good
rhythm.”
Bensen added, “The first couple of matches were a little
hard on us, because we had to figure each other out.”
The style of play is different, outside of the obvious of
having a partner to lean on when the match isn’t going well. For a longtime
singles player like Melina was before this season, it took some time to get
used to.
When Bensen made the switch her sophomore year, she learned
the same thing.
When she made her transition, in addition to net play, she
also learned placement and timing, rather than power, were more important in a
doubles match. Melina admitted she lacked consistency early in the season as she
liked to try to smash a return shot down the baseline, a trait she was
accustomed to in the singles game. Bensen stepped in and essentially told her
to part ways with that style. It wasn’t going to work at doubles. Bensen saw it
first-hand when she played with Dassow. They qualified for state in each of
their two seasons together.
“She’d always tell me, ‘Just get the ball back,’” Melina
said of Bensen. “I just tried to do too much.”
If it was anyone else besides Bensen, Melina isn’t sure how
her transition to doubles would’ve gone this season.
“It was great to have her experience,” Melina said. “She
helped me a lot with the strategy.”
Like with most things, when someone is pulled out of a
comfort zone, there is an adjustment. The skill set for both players was not
the problem — it was whether they could mesh.
“When you’ve been a doubles player, certainly you’re more
comfortable in that,” Tom said. “That lent some steadiness to a partner that
hadn’t played doubles. I think it has a calming effect.”
Tom likes the toughness Bensen has, which comes from her
being a multisport athlete at East. Bensen is not afraid, either, which helped.
“Most people are scared to come to the net because they’re
afraid to get hit,” she said.
When the season started, Bensen’s worry was: Who was going
to be her new partner since Dassow graduated? And even with the unfamiliarity,
Bensen and Melina each knew they had the skills to be successful.
“I think we still had high hopes for the season,” Melina
said.
If Melina moves back to singles next season, she believes
she’s a better tennis player now than she was more than a year ago.
“Playing doubles helped my volleys and I had to work to
improve those in doubles,” Melina said.
Bensen and Melina upset Neenah’s Kendra Kappes and Christina
Price in the sectional championship match, which was the highlight of the
season. And the best part about that victory, outside of it assuring the duo of
a seed at the state tournament? Easy. You had someone to celebrate on the court
with, something Melina didn’t know much about.
“It was nice to share an important win with someone else on
the court,” Melina said.
More than the net became her friend.
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