Chloe Yount has spent a good portion of the last calendar year thinking about now.
Hours of practice, thousands of balls served, volleyed, sliced, backhanded, lobbed, dropped delicately over the net and burned down the line. All for what happens next.
Yount is the No. 1 singles player on a dominant J.H. Rose girls’ tennis team. She and the Rampants often barely broke a sweat on their collective ride to a 10-1 season. But what happens from here is all that really counts, and that’s why Yount has spent so much time thinking about it and physically preparing for it.
“Year-round, I’m constantly telling myself that I’m getting ready for this tournament at the end of the season,” said Yount, a senior former doubles specialist who has been to the state tournament each of the last three seasons but is aiming for a more memorable result this year. “I’m reminding myself all the time.”
Her coach, 23-year program mainstay Marvin Hardy, has been reminding her, too.
His wisdom when it comes to who is ready for what, and which buttons to push in order to motivate different players, is a big reason for Rose’s annual regular season success. Hardy and Yount are aligned in wanting her success to transcend her regional triumphs.
“I always ask, ‘Do you want to win the state championship or not?’ She said yes, and I said let’s work on it,” Hardy said of a preseason conversation he had with Yount. “But I told her first we’ve got to get to the state championship. You know how tough it is. Nobody’s going to give it to you.”
That effort heats up substantially on Oct. 17 with the start of East Regional play, where Yount needs to either win or finish runner-up to advance to states. She won last year, but bowed out in the opening round of the state tournament, which this year begins Oct. 23.
As fierce a competitor as she might be, Yount shows a genuine fondness for her opponents, including some of the toughest ones she has faced and hopes to face again before her senior year is finished.
“I think it makes me nervous, but I absolutely love it at the same time,” Yount said of potentially getting to play opponents again that she’s had close matches against, which this year included showdowns against the top players at New Hanover, New Bern and D.H. Conley.
“I’d been looking forward to playing the New Bern girl (freshman Moi Lavigne) ever since I played her sister. And then I play her and she’s this great player, and she’s so sweet,” Yount said. “I really look forward to playing those people in those really challenging matches. They really help me out.”
The mental battles in tennis are often as tough as returning a sizzling first serve, and Yount readily admits it can be daunting when you’re the No. 1 singles player on your team.
“I feel like I have a lot of pressure on me, and not from the coaches or my teammates, but from myself, knowing that I have to play at No.1, and I feel like the girls look up to me and almost rely on me to win, even though I don’t always win,” she said. “That makes me put more pressure on myself.”
Her father, Brad Yount, backs his daughter’s belief that this year’s tough matches, although there weren’t many, have helped set the stage for a state run. In fact, he said one of those matches in particular brought out some previously untapped emotion and determination in her.
A comeback, tiebreaker win against Conley No. 1 Nandana Balaji was something new to Yount’s dad.
“She kind of showed me a side of her play I’ve never seen before,” he said. “So many of the matches don’t require you to dig in like that. She lost the first set. She’s never lost a tight set like that and come back to win like that. It’s usually either lopsided in her direction or the player is playing is so good she’s going to lose.
“’That level of perseverance, I was really proud of her.”
Tennis is in the family, as Yount’s older sister, Edie, was also previously on the Rose team.
Much like Edie, Chloe is now experiencing the rites of passage that every senior does.
“All of it’s a little sad at this point because I keep telling myself this is the last time — you’re doing this for the last time and doing that for the last time.
“My sister was a senior when I was a freshman. I saw her go through all that and how sad it was to see all of that end. I said that would never be me, but here we are.”
No matter the outcome of the her high school career, academics are about to take center stage in Yount’s life.
She hopes to attend UNC and also hopes to find a spot on the Tar Heels’ club tennis team.
“UNC has always been my dream, so if I had the opportunity to go to school there and play on their club team, that would be a dream for me,” she said.