Photo by: Tommy Lakes
Women's Tennis Creating Story For The Ages
April 10, 2019 | Women's Tennis, #ForBoston Files
A good story answers every question anyone could have
A good story always needs to answer six questions, appropriately named "Five W's and an H." It weaves basic fact together with purpose, accurately answering the who, what, when, and where before tying it together with the why and how. When all of those are answered, the story becomes supremely satisfying.
The 36th-ranked Boston College women's tennis team is probably one of the most supremely satisfying stories of the college sports universe, then, because it richly answers each of those questions. With a 15-7 record entering this weekend, the Eagles are on the verge of potentially qualifying for the national tournament, something that hasn't happened in over 20 years.
"It's been a long journey," head coach Nigel Bentley said. "We've been super competitive for many years in the ACC, and we've been on the bubble many times. But it just doesn't go our way. It's very difficult to get an at-large bid because it works like the basketball tournament. There are over 300 teams in women's tennis, and if we finish ninth or 10th in the conference, we could be the 40th team in the country - and it could still be very hard to get that at-large bid."
If BC advances out of the ACC, it would be just the second tournament berth in program history and first since joining the conference. The 15 wins this season are the most since 2004 when the team advanced to the consolation match of the Big East Championship. It included a nine-match win streak to start the season, and that further included a 4-3 victory over a Syracuse roster ranked No. 10 nationally at the time. Following a short setback, the team is now winners in six of its last eight, including four straight heading into this weekend.
"We've been playing so hard," senior captain Jackie Urbinati said. "We all have so much heart, and it's really an honor to play next to these girls. It shows all of our hard work, that all of these wins are an indication of how much effort goes into (everything)."
The season-long quest has been studded with the kind of memorable moments indicative of something special. Freshman Laura Lopez won the decisive match against the Orange in straight sets, beating Dina Hegab 7-6, 6-3 in the No. 5 singles spot to clinch BC's first-ever victory over a top-10 program.
"Laura's position to clinch against Syracuse was nerve-wracking," Urbinati said. "But seeing her attitude and commitment to the team gave us a bunch of positives about (our direction). That match was a collective team win. It wasn't just one or two or three people. From that, everyone put in so much effort to make the season great. We're competing with the best in the country, and I said, 'If we keep doing what we're doing, we can beat everyone.'"
The Syracuse win pushed the Eagles to 7-0 on the season, a record they ran to 9-0 after beating Boston University and Rhode Island. But ACC play started in earnest shortly thereafter, catching the Eagles a little off-guard with hard-fought losses. BC lost five straight over the next three weekends, before earning a much-needed break in mid-March.
"That's the nature of this league," Bentley said. "You have to have a short memory because every match is so competitive. There are no easy ones if you're playing the first team or if you're playing a team that might be lower in the standings. Every match requires you to bring your best commitment, effort and focus."
"There's been more mental aspect to our game," No. 103 ranked junior Kylie Wilcox said. "Overall, our past captains set the stage for accountability, especially with Jackie this year. Everyone holds themselves accountable to do more on and off the court. That gives us an edge because we want to put in that time and effort. That's setting us apart, and that's getting us some good wins this year."
A sweep win over Binghamton reset the Eagles for a 5-2 win over Virginia Tech, but a brutal travel schedule caught them the next weekend after a hard-fought loss to Florida State. The weekend tennis schedule forced BC into a road match at Georgia Tech just two days after a 4-3 loss to FSU, but the near-victory over the Seminoles injected a little bit more life into the team. Over the next two weekends, BC wouldn't lose, vaulting back into the national picture.
"There's a lot of matches like Florida State, where we lost but I couldn't have been more proud of the team," Bentley said. "That was so super close, and the girls fought to the bitter end. We were able to overcome the disappointment of losing that much to get on our streak a couple of weeks ago."
"It shows how resilient we are," Urbinati said. "We lost a couple of matches but nothing impacted our season. We just transferred everything to the practice court, realizing how we should have been better. We learned from our mistakes and moved on to become stronger and stronger."
The strength became evident last weekend against No. 27 Miami. BC trailed, 2-1, to the Hurricanes when Kylie Wilcox took the court for her No. 3 singles match against Daevenia Achong. After winning the second set, Wilcox jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the third set when things started to go horribly wrong for her physically.
"In the second set, I felt my calves and feet start to tighten up," she said. "I started thinking, 'Oh this isn't going to be good.' Then in the third set, I had a big lead but started to really cramp up really bad in both calves and both feet. I couldn't really walk."
Achong used the advantage to force a tiebreaker, but Wilcox fought through it to inexplicably take an emotional, 7-4 victory to clinch the match and supercharge her teammates. It also wound up as a potential difference in a 4-3 win over the nationally-ranked Hurricanes.
"I looked at my teammates and thought that the entire match could come down to me," she said. "So I started focusing on every point and not the fact that I couldn't really walk. I just decided to hit every ball as hard as I could, hoping that they would fall in - and they did. It worked out, but it was really my teammates pulling me through that. After the match, there's a picture where I sat down and started crying because everyone realized that if I pulled that match out, my teammates would do their part."
"Kylie was in severe pain," Bentley said. "But all of her teammates were on the court next to her pulling for her with everything that they had. Yes, tennis is an individual sport, but you're playing for your team (in college). They need you to give everything you have. In Kylie's situation, it was really remarkable. Every changeover, trainers worked on her legs, and she could barely back out to the court. That wound up being a critical win for us."
It's those types of wins that have the Eagles positioned for a run at their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1997, but it's not a given. College tennis plays around the weekend, and BC has a grueling road trip to Notre Dame and Duke on Friday and Sunday, respectively. Matches in Indiana kick off a weekend that ends on Tobacco Road in North Carolina. Like the Eagles, the Fighting Irish are fighting for a potential NCAA berth, while Duke is one of the top-ranked teams in the nation.
"This has been (building) for several years, with all the girls who were here before," the coach said. "When we play these top teams in the country, we're not intimidated. We're not playing the uniform. We're going to there to win and not just have good performances."
"We know the 'next match' is always going to be really hard," Bentley said. "We expect everything to be hard, but we wouldn't want it any other way. If it was easy, then it wouldn't be the reason why these athletes want to play for BC. They chose to come to BC to play this schedule, which is one of the most difficult in the country."
So now the questions are answered. The easier ones can be fairly straightforward. It's a story about a women's tennis team (who) vying for a national berth for the first time in 22 years (what). It's taking place right now (when) at Boston College (where). The more difficult questions tie those together (why and how) by simply saying it's about a team willing to dedicate harder, play tougher and do whatever it takes for teammates and for coaches who transcend the external uniform for something that feels greater.
"We're honestly a family," Urbinati said. "It sounds corny, but we do everything together. We have team dinners and always want to be together. In the past couple of years, we've been close but not like this. That's making us the best team that we can be. Through those friendships and this family, we pulled each other through matches. We screamed louder and were so into Laura Lopez's match (against Miami), much more than (the Hurricanes were). Those things make a difference."
Â
The 36th-ranked Boston College women's tennis team is probably one of the most supremely satisfying stories of the college sports universe, then, because it richly answers each of those questions. With a 15-7 record entering this weekend, the Eagles are on the verge of potentially qualifying for the national tournament, something that hasn't happened in over 20 years.
"It's been a long journey," head coach Nigel Bentley said. "We've been super competitive for many years in the ACC, and we've been on the bubble many times. But it just doesn't go our way. It's very difficult to get an at-large bid because it works like the basketball tournament. There are over 300 teams in women's tennis, and if we finish ninth or 10th in the conference, we could be the 40th team in the country - and it could still be very hard to get that at-large bid."If BC advances out of the ACC, it would be just the second tournament berth in program history and first since joining the conference. The 15 wins this season are the most since 2004 when the team advanced to the consolation match of the Big East Championship. It included a nine-match win streak to start the season, and that further included a 4-3 victory over a Syracuse roster ranked No. 10 nationally at the time. Following a short setback, the team is now winners in six of its last eight, including four straight heading into this weekend.
"We've been playing so hard," senior captain Jackie Urbinati said. "We all have so much heart, and it's really an honor to play next to these girls. It shows all of our hard work, that all of these wins are an indication of how much effort goes into (everything)."
The season-long quest has been studded with the kind of memorable moments indicative of something special. Freshman Laura Lopez won the decisive match against the Orange in straight sets, beating Dina Hegab 7-6, 6-3 in the No. 5 singles spot to clinch BC's first-ever victory over a top-10 program.
"Laura's position to clinch against Syracuse was nerve-wracking," Urbinati said. "But seeing her attitude and commitment to the team gave us a bunch of positives about (our direction). That match was a collective team win. It wasn't just one or two or three people. From that, everyone put in so much effort to make the season great. We're competing with the best in the country, and I said, 'If we keep doing what we're doing, we can beat everyone.'"The Syracuse win pushed the Eagles to 7-0 on the season, a record they ran to 9-0 after beating Boston University and Rhode Island. But ACC play started in earnest shortly thereafter, catching the Eagles a little off-guard with hard-fought losses. BC lost five straight over the next three weekends, before earning a much-needed break in mid-March.
"That's the nature of this league," Bentley said. "You have to have a short memory because every match is so competitive. There are no easy ones if you're playing the first team or if you're playing a team that might be lower in the standings. Every match requires you to bring your best commitment, effort and focus."
"There's been more mental aspect to our game," No. 103 ranked junior Kylie Wilcox said. "Overall, our past captains set the stage for accountability, especially with Jackie this year. Everyone holds themselves accountable to do more on and off the court. That gives us an edge because we want to put in that time and effort. That's setting us apart, and that's getting us some good wins this year."
A sweep win over Binghamton reset the Eagles for a 5-2 win over Virginia Tech, but a brutal travel schedule caught them the next weekend after a hard-fought loss to Florida State. The weekend tennis schedule forced BC into a road match at Georgia Tech just two days after a 4-3 loss to FSU, but the near-victory over the Seminoles injected a little bit more life into the team. Over the next two weekends, BC wouldn't lose, vaulting back into the national picture.
"There's a lot of matches like Florida State, where we lost but I couldn't have been more proud of the team," Bentley said. "That was so super close, and the girls fought to the bitter end. We were able to overcome the disappointment of losing that much to get on our streak a couple of weeks ago."
"It shows how resilient we are," Urbinati said. "We lost a couple of matches but nothing impacted our season. We just transferred everything to the practice court, realizing how we should have been better. We learned from our mistakes and moved on to become stronger and stronger."The strength became evident last weekend against No. 27 Miami. BC trailed, 2-1, to the Hurricanes when Kylie Wilcox took the court for her No. 3 singles match against Daevenia Achong. After winning the second set, Wilcox jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the third set when things started to go horribly wrong for her physically.
"In the second set, I felt my calves and feet start to tighten up," she said. "I started thinking, 'Oh this isn't going to be good.' Then in the third set, I had a big lead but started to really cramp up really bad in both calves and both feet. I couldn't really walk."
Achong used the advantage to force a tiebreaker, but Wilcox fought through it to inexplicably take an emotional, 7-4 victory to clinch the match and supercharge her teammates. It also wound up as a potential difference in a 4-3 win over the nationally-ranked Hurricanes.
"I looked at my teammates and thought that the entire match could come down to me," she said. "So I started focusing on every point and not the fact that I couldn't really walk. I just decided to hit every ball as hard as I could, hoping that they would fall in - and they did. It worked out, but it was really my teammates pulling me through that. After the match, there's a picture where I sat down and started crying because everyone realized that if I pulled that match out, my teammates would do their part."
"Kylie was in severe pain," Bentley said. "But all of her teammates were on the court next to her pulling for her with everything that they had. Yes, tennis is an individual sport, but you're playing for your team (in college). They need you to give everything you have. In Kylie's situation, it was really remarkable. Every changeover, trainers worked on her legs, and she could barely back out to the court. That wound up being a critical win for us."It's those types of wins that have the Eagles positioned for a run at their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1997, but it's not a given. College tennis plays around the weekend, and BC has a grueling road trip to Notre Dame and Duke on Friday and Sunday, respectively. Matches in Indiana kick off a weekend that ends on Tobacco Road in North Carolina. Like the Eagles, the Fighting Irish are fighting for a potential NCAA berth, while Duke is one of the top-ranked teams in the nation.
"This has been (building) for several years, with all the girls who were here before," the coach said. "When we play these top teams in the country, we're not intimidated. We're not playing the uniform. We're going to there to win and not just have good performances."
"We know the 'next match' is always going to be really hard," Bentley said. "We expect everything to be hard, but we wouldn't want it any other way. If it was easy, then it wouldn't be the reason why these athletes want to play for BC. They chose to come to BC to play this schedule, which is one of the most difficult in the country."
So now the questions are answered. The easier ones can be fairly straightforward. It's a story about a women's tennis team (who) vying for a national berth for the first time in 22 years (what). It's taking place right now (when) at Boston College (where). The more difficult questions tie those together (why and how) by simply saying it's about a team willing to dedicate harder, play tougher and do whatever it takes for teammates and for coaches who transcend the external uniform for something that feels greater.
"We're honestly a family," Urbinati said. "It sounds corny, but we do everything together. We have team dinners and always want to be together. In the past couple of years, we've been close but not like this. That's making us the best team that we can be. Through those friendships and this family, we pulled each other through matches. We screamed louder and were so into Laura Lopez's match (against Miami), much more than (the Hurricanes were). Those things make a difference."
Â
Players Mentioned
From the Desk of Blake James | Ep. 2
Friday, September 19
Patrick and Ella Might Run the Marathon? | The Podcast For Boston: BC Cross Country/Track and Field
Wednesday, September 17
Football: Owen McGowan Postgame Press Conference (Sept. 14, 2025)
Sunday, September 14
Football: Reed Harris Postgame Media (Sept. 14, 2025)
Sunday, September 14
