Women’s tennis standout has 10-1 record

Marshall University senior tennis player Deanna Bailey continues to impress the tennis world with an undefeated singles record of 10-1.

The Georgia native joined Marshall's tennis team last year after transferring from Elon University in North Carolina.

"I just became unhappy with sports and school," Bailey said. "It was my time to leave."

Bailey has earned several outstanding tennis awards during her college career.

According to Herdzone, Bailey became the first Elon women's tennis athlete to log First Team All-Southern Conference accolades and was named Elon's Most Valuable Player.

Since joining Marshall's team, Bailey has won the Flight B title at the Hokie Invitational and has captured the Flight B doubles title with teammate Kara Kucin.

As far as records go, in her first season at Marshall, Bailey posted a 6-5 singles and 7-4 doubles records. In spring 2009, she went 9-10 in singles and 11-10 in doubles. Fall 2009, she had 9-3 in singles and 10-3 in doubles.

"A lot of running and fitness has helped me to be successful," Bailey said. "I think maturing in tennis has allowed me to make smarter shots."

Bailey said the biggest influence on her tennis career is her sister, Josefina Bailey.

"My sister used to play tennis," Bailey said. "She is the reason I got started with tennis. My parents got her into tennis, and I began doing it because she was doing it."

Bailey said one of her biggest challenges is keeping her emotions under control while on the court.

"I have been a lot better, but I do get very emotional," Bailey said. "You have to keep your cool to make sure your opponent doesn't see you sweat."

Bailey said the team's accomplishments have motivated them to continue winning matches.

"We feel like we are the underdogs at every match," Bailey said. "I don't think too many people believed we could have a good season this year. We didn't get invited back to certain tournaments and that was definitely a motivation for us."

Bailey's goals for the rest of the season are to win the conference championship and to make it into the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

"With our ranking right now, we can't make it into NCAA, but we just need to continue to win matches," Bailey said.

She said she isn't sure what her plans are after her tennis career, but she would like to concentrate on school.

"I might teach tennis, but I kind of just want to focus on school when I am done," Bailey said.

Andrea Poling can be contacted at poling26@marshall.edu.