SPOKANE, Wash. – Gonzaga women's tennis senior Sophie Whittle has had a whirlwind start to her senior season as she became the program's first-ever Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Champion earlier this month. Whittle worked her way through eight matches in six days to claim the title, and she overcame several obstacles on her way her first ITA national title.
 
Nearly two weeks ago, Whittle began her historic run to the ITA/Riviera All-American Championship title. She started in the Qualifying Singles Draw on Oct. 2, defeating Florida's Victoria Emma (6-4, 6-4) followed by a 6-2, 6-1 rout over Stanford's Janice Shin. It marked the first time in Gonzaga women's tennis history that any player had won a non-consolation match at the prestigious 34-year-old tournament, let alone two.
 
Less than 24 hours later, Whittle defeated the No. 76 ranked player in the nation, Georgia's Marta Gonzalez in three sets (4-6, 6-0, 7-6(5)) to punch her ticket to the Main Singles Draw.
 
"I really had tunnel vision the whole tournament," Whittle said. "I didn't look at the draw. I was just focusing on one point at a time, and that really helped me. I think my game followed from that, and I trusted all of my shots and knew that I had put in the time and work for it all to come together."
 
Whittle continued to weave her way through a difficult field, defeating five ranked opponents including three in the Top 15, until she found herself on one of the biggest stages in women's collegiate tennis: the finals of the ITA/Riviera All-American Championships. Her opponent, freshman Maria Mateas of Duke. But for Whittle, Mateas was just another player on the far side of the net.
 
The match started fast for Whittle as she raced out to a 3-0 lead. The Nipomo, Calif., native maintained a one-game lead throughout the first set and finished strong for the 6-4 win. But a major obstacle presented itself in early in the second set; facing a 3-2 deficit with a 40-15 game lead, Whittle misjudged a hit from Mateas and badly sprained her ankle when she tried to change direction.  
 
"When I twisted my ankle, I fell and instantly started crying," Whittle said. "I was really upset because I didn't know if I was going to be able to walk on it."
 
"At the point when Sophie went down and hurt herself, I was thinking to myself, 'What am I going to tell her?" head women's tennis coach D.J. Gurule said. "How am I going to make her feel better about an amazing accomplishment but coming up just a little bit short?"
 
For Whittle, there was no question whether or not she'd return.
 
"D.J.'s first question was, 'Can you play? Do you need to pull out?'" Whittle recounted. "I was like, no way; I'm not pulling out. I don't care. I want it so bad."
 
Available trainers tended to Whittle immediately, wrapped her ankle and got her back out on the court in about 10 minutes time. She did her best to counter the pain, but Whittle admits that her injury altered her performance. She was moving slower and her movement wasn't as fluid on the court; even so, Whittle held a 5-4 set lead and was up 40-30 on match point. Mateas countered and claimed three-straight games to take the set 7-5. With the match tied 1-1, Whittle depended on her mental toughness and the support of her family to get her through.
 
"I tried not to let it get the best of me because I couldn't control it," Whittle said. "That's one of the main things that D.J. always emphasizes is, you can't get mad at the things you can't control. You can control what you can; if you can't, then you just have to let it go."
 
Whittle had the support of her parents, Kristi and Ken, and that of her brother Eli who flew down with a family friend to catch Whittle's historic run. Not to mention the entire backing of her team.
 
"[Graciela Rosas] was live-streaming [the final set], and the whole team was watching it," Gurule said. "There was a match that I finally included the whole team in a text and went point by point. I just said, 'Hey, I need you all right now.' … For me, that's who we are. It embodies everything that we believe."
 
Teammates, friends, family, administrators, professors and Zag Nation followed closely as Rosas fed updates to Twitter and Instagram, point-by-point, game-by-game, until she decided to live-stream the last few points of the final set.
 
"It was such a cool feeling," Rosas said. "I knew that people wanted to witness what she was about to do. I wanted everyone to see and watch the last point because what she did will stay with everyone…It was a lot of pressure, but I knew that I could do it. I wanted them to witness and see what I was seeing."
 
In the final set, Whittle and Mateas traded games early, but Whittle won two straight to take a 4-2 lead. Whittle never backed down and won the third set 6-3 to become Gonzaga women's tennis first-ever national champion.
 
"The immediate sensation I felt was a little bit of everything," Whittle said. "I kind of just went blank. I was relieved that it was over, but I just didn't want that moment to end because I was just so happy, sad and a little bit relieved. I can't really describe it, but I'm just happy I was able to represent Gonzaga."
 
Whittle's historic run through the ITA/Riviera All-American Championships brought awareness to Gonzaga women's tennis in a way that had never been done before. But the Zags won't be making any changes to the way they do things; for them, it's business as usual.
 
"I'm not sure if this sounds right, but we are just going to do the same thing that we have been doing," Gurule said. "We do things the same way; nothing is ever easy, and nothing is ever given…What got us here is hard work, perseverance, belief in each other, and we are going to continue down that path with the development of our team, ourselves and the university."