Sarah Hickey's trips to the asphalt are as reliable as her forehand.
In nearly every match she played this year, Hickey seemed in danger of watching a passing shot float by before flinging herself through the air and stretching her racket to meet the ball. As her body flew toward the pavement she'd begin to roll, absorbing the blow with her shoulder and hopping to her feet, prepared for the point to continue.
"She'd do it every single match, usually three or four times a match," Lee coach Clare Lahey said. "Just like the pros do on grass courts. We'd try to tell her that no one does that on hard courts. No one but Sarah."
"Sometimes it was almost like she'd set herself up for it," assistant coach Jeff Forget said. "Like she wants someone to try to pass her so that she can hurl herself at the ball."
While Hickey never sustained a major injury during the dives, the scratches suited her.
"She'd probably ring my neck if she heard me say her game wasn't pretty, but it's really not," Forget said. "She gets the ball over the net one more time than her opponent. Sometimes it's pretty, sometimes it's ugly."
While Hickey's game might not be attractive, her results were a thing of beauty. With a perfect county record, a sectional championship as a member of the Wildcats' team, and a three-set loss to the top seed in the girls' sectional tournament, the Lee High junior was the class of the
The rest of the All-Eagle team is composed of Monument's Hannah White, Taconic's Cheryl Martin and Jess Crall, Lenox's Andrea Nathan and the doubles team of Lauren Heeren and Nicole LePrevost from Lee. The team was picked by The Eagle.
Unlike many of the past-MVPs, Hickey isn't a year-round player and didn't grow up playing the sport. Her involvement began four years ago when she tagged along with her cousin, Lee No. 2 singles player Maggie Porter, to a summer program at the Lee Community Tennis Association.
Hickey's success despite a late introduction to the sport is unique, but so are her abilities.
Hickey was the only two-sport MVP in the county. She was also the MVP of the girls' soccer team in the fall, playing goalie and serving as the backbone of Lee's state semifinalist team.
During the tennis season, Hickey also went to soccer practice with her club team twice a week. She often ran a mile and a half home from the high school after practice if she didn't believe her workout was good enough.
After one loss this season, Hickey went straight from the tennis courts — where she'd already played two matches — to the soccer field, where she finished a game with her club team. Her second match of the afternoon was a three-set battle with Lindsey Herschel, the top seed from Minnechaug, that lasted more than two hours.
"I played a half in goal, so it wasn't that bad," Hickey said. "I was pretty tired after."
Without an extensive tennis background, Hickey isn't entirely comfortable pounding her groundstrokes.
Instead she slices the ball back to her opponent, content to keep it in the court. Instead of pinning her opponents to the baseline, Hickey will often bring them to the net, using her athleticism to criss-cross the court and track down her opponent's volleys.
"We call it 'Sarah style,' " Lahey said. "It's not like you teach it. She's just like a soccer goalie back there. She doesn't let anything past her."
By utilizing a strategy that minimizes her mistakes, Hickey won a match against a county foe without dropping a single point.
"I might not be the best tennis player in Berkshire County if you're talking about just hitting the ball," Hickey said. "I use my athleticism a lot."
Hickey's coaches are quick to point out that although she doesn't display the traditional power groundstrokes, she's more than capable of unleashing them. By practicing last summer, Hickey added speed to her fluid serve and improved her ability to trade groundstrokes if need be.
When Forget would take his daughter Avery to the high school to practice, Hickey would often be there, banging backhands against the wall or serving balls out of a plastic bucket.
During a practice match against the boys' team, Hickey extended Lee's No. 1 Peter Choi to three sets, then came away miffed when she couldn't pull out a victory.
"She just loves to compete and she loves to be challenged," Forget said. "That's why she's as good as she is. The bottom line comes down to 'Did you win, or did you lose?' She may not have the prettiest game, but the fact is that the kid is undefeated. No one else did what she did."
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