By MELANIE SCHUMILAS
Special to LongwoodLancers.com
 
One year ago, the Longwood women's tennis program was in disarray. The Lancers, en route to what would eventually become their second straight 10-win season, found themselves rudderless after second-year head coach Bruce Myers announced his resignation on March 18, 2016, to take another coaching position at the University of Delaware.
 
Losing a head coach who had led the Lancers to 10 wins in his first season and six more halfway through year two left the program with a sizable hole. But with adversity comes opportunity, and the three players who now make up Longwood's senior class all stepped up to fill the void.
 
"I don't think I would be as confident as I am right now if that hadn't happened," said senior Paloma Alatorre, a Guadalajara, Mexico, native who has emerged as an anchor of the team in the middle of the lineup. "I have more confidence because we didn't have a coach, so that meant that me, Mason [Thomas] and Anna [Pelak] had to seriously step it up and do the [coaching] job as well. Now, I feel like the freshmen can really rely on me."
 
That season, the junior trio of Alatorre, Pelak and Thomas, and then-senior Maria Coronel, were the lone veterans on a deep, but young Longwood team, charged with keeping their six freshman teammates on track with 10 matches remaining on the schedule. With help from men's soccer associate head coach Rich Stoneman, who took over as interim head coach after Myers' departure, and men's tennis coach Pierre Tafelski – recently named the 2017 Big South Coach of the Year – they did that, and more.
 
Alatorre, Pelak and Thomas sparked a late-season run that saw the Lancers win four of their final 10 regular-season matches to reach 10 wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since Longwood became a fully-fledged Division I program in 2007-08. Among those victories were a 6-1 rout of Commonwealth rival George Mason and a 5-2 win over Big South rival Presbyterian.
 
Now, as Longwood's seniors embark on their final postseason together this Thursday in a rematch against No. 9 seed Radford in Big South Championship's opening round, those three have used that adversity – nay, opportunity – to blossom into true team leaders.
 
"It's helped me know what [the freshmen] are going through with a new coach," said Pelak, a two-time Big South All-Academic Team selection. "Even though they're freshmen, they're part of your team, and you have to respect them like you'd want to be respected. It helped me grow into a leader, and it's nice to see us all grow with the new coach at the same time."
 
Thomas, meanwhile, admitted that she initially wanted to give up after Myers resigned but quickly reevaluated her attitude. She said instead of using the adversity she and her teammates faced that season as an "excuse" to lose matches, she found it helped her become a stronger, more self-reliant player and person.
 
First-year head coach Maria Lopez expressed pride for each senior and their integral role in the team's six-woman roster, which includes two freshmen, both of whom play at the top of the lineup.
 
Lopez said Alatorre has noticeably developed as a leader, and taken on the role of consistently communicating with her teammates and coach in an effort to hold everyone accountable and create a more responsible environment.
 
For Pelak, Lopez says she has used her emotional openness to adopt a more motherly role with the team, in which she wholeheartedly embraces the newer and younger players and assists with their transition.
 
In regards to Thomas, Lopez said her "fun" personality is infectious within the team. Lopez, the former ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year, said she can always count on Thomas to make any practice enjoyable, whether players are tired or it's their second time on the court that day.
 
"They're all bringing in some component to the team, and it's made my job easier," Lopez said. "They've been able to really connect on whatever I ask them to do. They've been really receptive to just go out there and try it without hesitation."
 
Beyond individual growth, the unfortunate experience also helped the girls bond more.
 
"We were really close to begin with because we came in as freshmen together, so it was kind of easier to adjust when we lost our coach because I knew that I had good teammates that would be there for me," Pelak said. "This experience has helped [our team] bond and become very, very strong. I'm very fortunate."
 
Alatorre also acknowledged the trio's original closeness, but said that being forced to "step up" as leaders certainly improved their bond.
 
"It was hard, but we were used to being the leaders of the team since we were the older ones," Alatorre said. "It was a very nice learning experience because we grew a lot from it and we got very close to each other. Even though we didn't have a coach, we didn't feel alone."
 
Stoneman, who returned to his coaching duties alongside Todd Dyer's women's soccer program after his short stint as a head tennis coach, acknowledged how he saw the seniors form that bond.
 
"All the credit goes to those young ladies," he said. "They persevered, they fought. It bonded them closer together. They really latched onto each other. Through the course of the season, they really cemented not just friendship, but that bond as teammates, and when you have that, it's indestructible."
 
That bond has shown itself steadily throughout the season, culminating in a dominant stretch run to the postseason in which the senior-laden Lancers won three of their final four matches heading into Thursday's 9 a.m. first serve against the Highlanders.
 
The last of those victories came against Radford, a 4-3 barnburner that saw Longwood overcome a 2-1 deficit in dramatic fashion. That day, with their backs against the wall, the Lancers needed three wins, and Alatorre, Pelak and Thomas all delivered.
 
That's no surprise. They'd been through far more challenging situations than that.
 

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