The seniors on the Greenhills women’s tennis team are looking to do something legendary.  They want to go four for four on state championships over their high school career. 

    The team’s current makeup is half seniors, including their three captains, Sophie Chen ‘25, Maddie Morgan ‘25 and Shangyang Xia ‘25.  The spring season is around the corner and they’re ready to lead the team. More importantly, they’re looking to leave a legacy by showing the underclassmen what it takes to make a cohesive winning team. 

     “We definitely want to have a four-peat this season. I’m really excited about that.”said Sophie. “I want to lead by example and foster the younger players to become leaders next year as well.” 

     There are high expectations for this team which adds pressure to perform and succeed.  The captains have a way to work through the added pressure of those expectations.

    “The big thing is our motto is all joy, no fear, can’t lose- we live by that.  We always try to have fun on the court and it’s really not about winning every single match or getting every point.” said Sophie. “It’s about fostering that team experience and treating everyone with kindness.”

     The three captains bring different personalities and attributes to leadership.  

    “We do what we can to compliment our abilities,” said Shangyang. “A lot of communication, sharing the same goals and aspirations.” When asked about her favorite things about the team said Shangyang, “The friendships and relationships are what make this team.  During the season, everyone is quite literally like family.  We have a lot of fun and we share a lot of worries too.”

  Head coach Mark Randolph who was recently recognized as coach of the year by the Michigan High School Tennis Coach’s Association (MHSTeCA) recognizes that a team like this is not a regular occurrence. 

   “You don’t know where we were five years ago. We had a couple of really athletic players in Rukmini Nallamothu ‘22 and Georgie Branch ‘22 and then we had a lot of great kids who wanted to learn the game and worked hard.” said Randolph. “So the notion that the women have been just running the table is just historically inaccurate.  We’ve had to build over the course of many years.”

    Randolph’s last state championship was in 2017 before these current seniors won their first state championship as freshman. When asked what the secret recipe was, Randolph attributed it to Coach Rebecca Randolph, Greenhills middle school tennis coach.

     “Eight years later, that’s where we come to this current class and what they’ve been able to accomplish. We were able to create a culture where the really experienced tennis players chose to stay at this school and the person who is most responsible for that is Mrs. Randolph.” said Randolph. “I feel like I’m standing on her shoulders.”

      Randolph is especially proud of the 2025 class of athletes on his team. He was able to outline the accomplishments of each of his players but focused on Maddie and her role at one singles.

     “Seven seniors is meaningful for a number of reasons. You’re talking about half to almost two-thirds that are just ready to play. Then on top of that you have an incredibly highly motivated, skilled focused player who is still above the rest and that’s Maddie Morgan.” says Randolph. “So to have Maddie there as a terrific one, then pushes down all these talented players.  That’s just a dream for a team that has been able to experience success from their first year in ninth grade and then the extraordinary thing is that they build on it rather than become complacent.”

     Maddie will be continuing her tennis career playing at Washington University St.Louis next year but her current focus is making the most of her senior year season. 

    “Our goal is to win states for the fourth time in a row but also one of our goals is to potentially win Catholic Leagues for the first time.  Our team has never won the Catholic League championship.” said Maddie.

    Randolph is optimistic about the season mostly because of the strong leadership that the seniors on the team bring.

   “We chose tri-captains this year,” said Randolph, “but we could have had seven captains because they’re all terrific leaders.”

    The team is ready to compete and come together. “I’m really excited to meet all the new members of our team,” said Sophie “ I really want to create that welcoming environment that I had when I was a freshman.”