THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
McAlester High School Athletics

Abby Ervin has made sure to up her workload for her senior season. Ervin is McAlester’s lone senior and the one-singles player, qualifying for the state tournament last year after taking over the role. She hopes to place at state this year after making some changes, getting in better shape, and working more on her game after practice. “I work on making the basics consistent enough to where I can play and actually put more on the game than just trying to hit it in,” Ervin said. Ervin said she works on ground strokes, volleys and serves. She also spends time coming up to the net, which she said gave her trouble as a junior. She thinks she’s improved the most in agility this season. Ervin being more agile means she’s able to get to tennis balls that she wouldn’t have a season ago. She feels she’s become more consistent in getting to the ball. Ervin has been playing tennis since she was “about six or seven” and stuck with it through junior high and high school, loving the challenge. “People think it’s a really easy sport, but it’s a lot more challenging than people give it credit for,” she said. Ervin played singles as a freshman, but played on the varsity two-doubles team with Mackenzie Brown and sister Molly Ervin before making her way to one-singles. She was familiar with the singles game, but had to learn doubles for varsity. “I was pretty new at it my first year with Mackenzie,” she said. “I didn’t get it entirely down, but my sophomore year with my sister, I think we just had the communication and the skill level to work well with each other.” The Ervin sisters finished seventh at the state tournament in 2017. McAlester’s girls are going to the regional tournament on Monday at Cascia Hall. Ervin finished third in the one-singles competition at regionals as a junior. She’s been finding herself with the need to get more rest after each tournament to make sure there are no injuries by regionals. Abby Ervin knows there’s no room for error, and thinks she has a chance to beat anybody she goes up against with the skills she has acquired. She’s hoping to get back to state and place in the top five or higher. Abby Ervin’s future in tennis is uncertain after McAlester. She has not received any offers, but plans to attend the University of Oklahoma and major in graphic design. Abby Ervin might try to make it as a walk on, or playing intramurally. “If I don’t get to play it in college, that’ll be really sad for me,” she said. “I’ve put a lot of time into it. I enjoy it still.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
McAlester High School Athletics

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COREY STOLZENBACH

McAlester News-Capital | 4/27/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy Photo