UA freshman Reece Carter’s ‘competitive’ fuel has taken her game to new heights

When UA freshman tennis player Reece Carter dropped a game to go down 4-3 in the second set at No. 2 singles to Utah’s Katya Townsend last Friday, spectators could see how much the sport means to her.

Carter had a certain look in her eyes, signaling that she was not going down without a fight. The British Columbia native clawed her way back into the set by screaming, cheering and clenching her fist after every won point. She took the last three games of the second set to prevail 6-2, 6-4. The win helped the Wildcats beat the Utes 4-3.

“I was getting a little frustrated with myself because I knew how much this match meant to win it and I needed to win it if we were going to beat Utah,” Carter said.

Being able to stay poised and collected through misfortunes on the court is important for Carter. Many times earlier in the season, she grew frustrated with herself. Throughout the season, through her coaching and developed maturity, she has been able to manage her passion and emotions on the court.

“(She’s improved a lot) being able to stay calm through tight situations, battle back when she gets down,” volunteer assistant coach Jamie Schroer said. “That’s something, in the beginning, we were trying to work on like ‘you’re gonna play a lot of tough players in college and they’re gonna fight and everyone wants to win.’”

Carter, despite being the youngest player on the team at 18 years old, has made one of the biggest impacts for Arizona. She holds an 18-6 record while displaying consistency and firepower that has turned her into a leader. A day after the win against Utah, Carter dominated in a 6-2, 6-1 win against Colorado. Arizona went on to beat the Buffaloes 4-1.

The Wildcats (16-11, 3-6 Pac-12) end their regular season with a home match against ASU at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“She just really cares,” UA head coach Ryan Stotland said. “If you are around people that care, you’re going to have to care, too. As a freshman, she’s kinda taken on that leadership role, showing how much she wants the team to win.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Since arriving in Tucson in the fall, Carter has added many elements to her game that she did not have back in high school but has always had the desire to elevate to greater feats.

“Reece has improved immensely,” Stotland said. “It’s been amazing seeing her growth on the tennis court. She’s been amazing, she rarely loses, but when she does, she gets hungrier and wants to learn why she lost.

“It’s been really nice to have somebody who’s coming in as a freshman who we have high expectations for. She is showing that she can compete with anybody in the country, and she can beat anyone.”

Starting her collegiate career only five years ago, it hasn’t been difficult for Schroer to put her in Carter’s shoes in trying to help her develop further in her game. Similarly to Carter’s game, Schroer mentioned that she was a “fighter” on the court and could help all of the freshmen through her own game.

“Working on transitioning, I worked later on trying to be aggressive in my game, coming to the net, something that’s helped Tanvi (Narendran), Reese, all the girls. … but yeah, little things that (they) can mix in, so they can run their games and learn new tricks that I’ve picked up along the way.”

Any athlete moving to a new country and school could be daunting, but for Carter, moving from Canada to the U.S. has been a smooth transition, and a large part of this has been the presence of Morocco native and graduate student main doubles partner Salma Ziouti who together, have won four out of their last seven doubles matches.

“Being international, I feel like we do think the same because we don’t have family in the U.S.,” Ziouti said. “We are each other’s family, so it definitely makes us closer. … we’re both aggressive players.”