Having a mother that played tennis pretty much her entire life, as well as a stint coaching the sport, it was only inevitable that Maia D’Annunzio would eventually find herself on the courts swinging a racket. Around kindergarten, D’Annunzio was tagging along with her mother to the club, and ultimately found herself training. 

“I liked the individuality of the sport,” D’Annunzio said. “You get to play your own game; you’re in control of your destiny.”

Although the Norwood resident was taking tennis lessons for a good part of her childhood, she only thought of it as developing skills. She never joined a club team or even played matches against opponents.

“Competing in sports takes a big chunk of time out of your life and I really wanted to focus on my education,” D’Annunzio said. “So there were no teams, just lessons.”

However, things would change when she entered high school; she wanted to experience tennis on the varsity level. While tryouts were a little nerve racking for the freshman, she just wanted to make a good impression and earn a position on the Mustangs varsity team. 

D’Annunzio made the team and was awarded the number two singles position. Here she would soon find out that things were very different than lessons. Stepping onto the court, usually against someone older, the first-year player found the sport to be scary.

“I had done the one-on-one things on the court during lessons and knew how to go about playing the game but had never done it against another player in a game format,” D’Annunzio said.

The Norwood youngster would take her opponent to a tie-breaker in her first ever varsity showing, only to come up on the short end. Although she lost, she was happy that she did well in her first match but also found herself disappointed in her overall performance.

It was here that she immediately realized that she needed to work on her consistency if she wanted to be successful. She needed to stop trying too hard, and as the season went on, and the more experience on the court, the better she became. 

Her ultimate goal as a freshman playing on the varsity team was to at least secure one win. She finally was able to accomplish that goal during the team’s final game of the season. She was nervous going into the game but felt that she gave it her all and was able to come away with the win.

Experience will definitely help, but her coach was pleased with what she saw in the freshman.

“Maia works really hard, and although she is not getting many wins, she does come off the court with a smile,” Norwood Tennis Coach Lisa Tucker said. “She knows that she has to work on her game to improve, but she also knows what she has done wrong.”

Playing at second singles against upper classmen, the Norwood freshman knew that she’d be going up against older girls with more playing experience, but she wouldn’t want it any other way. Playing against those older, more experienced girls was a learning experience.  She knew that if she went against lower-level opponents then she would never improve her game, but by competing those with years of experience she would learn at a much higher level.

The freshman, who starting playing second singles, has found her way into the number one singles position for six or seven games this year.

“I had to step into number one singles and it was definitely tougher and I was playing top notch players,” D’Annunzio said. “I had to accept the fact that I was not going to win any of these games, but I went out and did my best while trying to learn as much as I could from them.”

Playing against the upper echelon of tennis players, the young racketeer found herself watching what her opponents were doing and tried to absorb as much knowledge of the game that she could. In addition to learning, she was trying to take good shots and extend the game as long as she could.

“These girls were tournament players, but I wasn’t going to let it intimidate me,” D’Annunzio said.

Coach Tucker observed that the young tennis player did a good job when having to step up and accept the challenge of playing first singles. Tucker continued that D’Annunzio works hard in both practice and matches.

Having completed her first year on the varsity squad and earning her first win, she knows that she needs to work on her ability to place the ball better to keep her opponents off guard.

“I need them to have to work for their shots,” she said. “I’ve been just hitting the ball over the net and it was way too easy for them to return my volley and put it where I couldn’t reach it.”

This off-season, D’Annunzio plans on continuing with private lessons at the club to bring her game up to the next level and will also take to the court with her mother a few times a week. Over the next three years, she will be looking to win more of her games.

“If I’m at second singles again, I know that I’ll be able to do that as a lot of my matches were close this year,” D’Annunzio said. “There is always room for improvement and if I can take my game up a notch I know that I will be able to win.”

Although she will not be graduating from Norwood for another three years, D’Annunzio is thinking about her future on the courts. She noted that while she does prioritize schooling, she would like to play tennis on the college level. The plan, however, will have to wait as she still has three more years with the Mustangs and intends on improving each of those years.