WW South’s Clousing, Li adept at waiting game
Thank you, Ringo, sometimes we actually do get by with a little help from our friends.
The entire Wheaton Warrenville South tennis team showed up to support singles players Keisha Clousing and Emma Li at the state tournament Thursday, and it was a good thing they were there because it turned out the day was more rain delay than tournament.
Though both girls won their first-round matches easily, that turned out to be their only match of the day. The rain came back in the afternoon and forced cancellation of two rounds of the championship bracket and the entire back-draw.
The qualifiers reported to their locations at 8 a.m. and didn’t get on the court until after 1 p.m. After waiting for a while in the morning, officials advised everyone to report back their sites at noon when a decision would be made to try to play the matches outdoors or move indoors.
“We went to the Woodfield Mall,” said Clousing, the No. 1-seeded player in the state. “We had a dance party on the bus listening to hip-hop. And we went to Woodfield Mall and hung around Dick’s Sporting Goods for a while.”
“Waiting usually tires me out,” said Li, a 9-16 seed. “But having a little fun with my friends forced me to not think about the match until I needed to. (Coach Patti Clousing) really turned it into a team experience.”
Patti Clousing has been there before and what she learned was, as a coach, you have to strike the right balance between keeping the kids active and alert and not tiring them out with too much activity.
“We had three hours to kill and I didn’t want them to have so much fun that they were exhausted,” she said. “But I also once had a player who went to sleep during the down time and couldn’t get enough to play when it was time to get back to tennis.”
Keisha Clousing finally got on for her match after 1 p.m. and it took her just 20 minutes to complete her victory.
“It was freezing and the wind was terrible,” she said. “The pace of the ball, the direction of the ball, everything was affected by the weather. We just had to get used to it.”
Clousing defeated Haley Wilcox of Tinley Paark 6-0, 6-0.
Li, who got on the court at 1:30 p.m., thrives playing in the bad weather.
“When I play I just concentrate on my match and the thought of the weather just falls away,” Li said. “It’s just something you have to deal with. When it’s colder the ball doesn’t bounce as high, so I had to put extra topspin on it. I tried to play smart, and not make pointless errors so I didn’t waste my energy in the cold.”
Li defeated Megan Elliott of Jacobs 6-0, 6-1.
Patti Clousing praised the entire Tigers team for their spirit and loyalty.
“Our team has done a fantastic job of rallying around Keisha and Emma,” the coach said. “They had the bus all decorated. This is where tennis becomes a great team sport. Sharing this experience and having people cheering for them really helped our girls energy and confidence. The day turn out to be fun and we all helped each other get through it.”
If all goes well there will be four rounds played Friday.
“That will really be an endurance event,” Patti Clousing said. “But Keisha and Emma will be ready to go. And it will continue to be a true team effort.”