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Kenwood Girls Win Regional Tennis Title
- by Ben Boehl -

 

Kenwood seniors Chelsea Leap and Samantha Lui won the Regional Championship for girl’s doubles.
Chelsea Leap and Samantha Lui are regional tennis champions. The two Kenwood seniors were crowned Regional Champions for girl’s doubles at CCBC-Essex on May 20.
They are coached by Fletcher Burchett, who believes Leap and Lui are the first tennis champions at Kenwood.
“This is the first region championship I think we have won in the history of the school,” Burchett said, who is still doing the research.
In a sport like tennis, a player must remain calm and not get upset over every play. Burchett said that’s why Leap and Lui are regional champions. Both have on-the-court determination and many times they have come back to win in the third set.
“They both are incredibly calm and collective on the court,” Burchett said. “They are resilient and don’t make a lot of errors. They force their opponents to make the errors.”
“We are both pretty quiet. We don’t get too excited or emotional when things go bad and we don’t get carried away when we win too. We keep each other in check,” Lui explained.
“We understand each other. We don’t get mad at each other,” Leap added.
Leap and Lui primarily played singles tennis so it took time for the girls to adjust to the doubles game and they were heavy underdogs going into the regional tournament at CCBC-Essex.

Their first game was against Dulaney, who was the top seed in the tournament, but the Kenwood team found a way to win. The girls went on to beat Towson for the regional title.
“We had a tough draw, especially playing Dulaney,” Lui said. “We knew it’d be hard.”
Leap said no one gave Kenwood a chance because they were considered as two singles players playing against teams used to doubles competition. It was a sweet victory for the Kenwood duo.
“It was amazing,” Leap explained. “We were so much in the game and when we won, we felt like that hardwork finally paid off.”
What makes this Kenwood’s team championship so special is the girls aren’t obsessive with the sport. It’s just for fun. They don’t live, sleep and breathe tennis. While many tennis players train year-round and have played since they could walk, Leap and Lui didn’t start playing tennis formally until their freshman year at Kenwood and only play in the spring. They take the fall off to play badminton.
“It always takes a couple of weeks to get back into tennis. At first, I get frustrated because it takes so long to get back into a rhythm,” Leap said.
Leap and Lui’s career ended at the University of Maryland-College Park where they lost in the first round of the State Championship last weekend.
The tennis duo isn’t just successful on the court, but off the court. Both finished in the top three percent in the Kenwood senior class and Lui was selected as Kenwood Class 2010 Valedictorian.
“Both Chelsea and Samantha are outstanding students and they are involved in the school,” Burchett added.