92f6c32465e091aa94e1bd3166703df6.jpg

PRINCETON: Girls Tennis Player of the Year

Asch grew into champion

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Samantha Asch is still soft spoken, humble about her own game and respectful of her opponents, yet she and her game are quite grown up and say plenty about the work she has put in to get to the next step in her career.
   The Princeton Day School senior departs in just a couple of weeks to begin taking classes and training with the women’s tennis team at Wake Forest University.
   ”I’m going to practice with them,” said Asch, who will redshirt this spring. “I’ll get a head start on my classes so when I’m actually playing on the team, it’ll be easier and I’ll have more free time. Even now, I’ll get a lot of great practice and training in, and academic training too.”
   Asch will begin her college career with the same lofty focus that took her to the heights of Mercer County and the state during her career. It culminated this year with her third straight first singles championship to go with the second singles crown that she won as a freshman. She won it with a style that has evolved from the one that captured her first MCT title three years earlier.
   ”It’s definitely a lot different,” Asch said. “When I was a freshman and sophomore, it was so defensive. I had to do that because I wasn’t strong enough, I didn’t hit the ball hard enough. It wasn’t that I wanted to play defensively, but I kind of had no choice.
   ”Now the match is more on my hands. When you have a defensive style, it’s on your opponent’s racket.”
   Three weeks later, Asch and the Panthers were at the top of the Prep B world. Asch won her second straight first singles championship and the Panthers gave her a perfect bookend to the team’s Prep A crown when she was a freshman by winning the first Prep B team title of her career.
   ”Winning that tournament was a great way to end the season and everyone was so excited,” Asch said. “It was a team effort. Every match we won counted. Everyone did something to get to the title.”
   Asch was unbeaten in all but two matches during her scholastic career, one in the Prep B state tennis tournament as a sophomore and then one in the regular season this year. She will depart as the most decorated Panthers player in program history with four MCT titles, a team county crown and two state titles to go with three individual state crowns.
   Samantha Asch is the Princeton Packet Girls Tennis Player of the Year.
   ”I would be hard-pressed to find someone who exceeded her,” said PDS head coach Ed Tseng. “I think it would be safe to say she’s the best player to come through here.”
   It didn’t happen without a lot of hard work and dedication. She set her sights on improving and reaching her potential, and it took her far.
   ”To get a Division I scholarship was something I never was banking on,” Asch said. “My dad had me just looking at Division III schools when I was a freshman and sophomore just to start looking. It wasn’t one thing I was banking on. I did know I had the potential if I worked at it.”
   Asch has hit with Marc Hill since she was 13 years old, but she’s gotten lessons and advice from plenty of coaches through the years that have helped to hone her skills. After high school practices, she would work out again on her own, and outside of the high school season, she practices daily.
   ”I have tournaments once a month which are all-weekend affairs, so you have to get ahead in your homework,” she said. “I have practices every day for at least an hour and a half on weekdays and three hours on the weekends.”
   It’s not as much time as some tennis academy students put in, but it’s more than the average high school player does. Asch doesn’t have all day to work on her game during the school year, but she’s looking forward to spending more time on the court at Wake Forest. She’s had to be efficient in her high school career.
   ”I’ve been able to work really hard in the summer and kind of catch up,” she said. “I always have my biggest wins in the summer time. At Wake, I’m going to be playing just as much tennis as everyone else. All these other years, I haven’t been playing as much tennis on average as others.
   ”I’ve played a lot more tennis than the average kids, but kids at the academies are out there six hours a day. The ones that can make those hours productive are going to be professional tennis players. I’ve been able to make my time productive, and I’ve been productive over the summers. I’ve tried to make my time on the court valuable.”
   It has shown up in the big matches, when Asch faces the rare challenge at the high school level. She has a way of making most wins look easy by their score, even if they are not, thanks to her ability to win the big points. As she’s gotten older, she’s shown more and more confidence in those situations as she’s developed her game.
   ”She’s physically definitely grown,” Tseng said. “She’s gotten stronger. She’s made her strengths better and improved her weaknesses. She’s one of those people that strives for constant improvements. She definitely puts the time in so she gets the results too.”
   Asch figures to continue her steady improvement at Wake Forest. Her goal is to be an All-America there, and no one doubts her potential.
   ”The physical gap definitely will close quite a bit,” Tseng said. “Nobody will be out of her league. But I think mentally, that’ll be the question. You’ll inevitably be playing tighter matches, closer matches. The question is how do you react when it’s a close match, you’re in a tiebreaker, or you don’t have your best game? I know she’ll continue to improve. I think one of her goals is to play in the U.S. Open. I think she has a great shot at it. She better leave me tickets.”
   After playing at PDS for four years, Asch has a better understanding of the sort of team environment that she is joining. She is looking forward to contributing at the next level as much as she did in four years with the Panthers.
   ”I think I learned a lot about team camaraderie, and you get a different feeling winning as a team than winning by yourself,” Asch said. “And also the aspect of being a team player that I wouldn’t have learned if I didn’t do this.”
   Said Tseng: “Her work ethic and presence and experience, you can’t put a price on it. On all levels, it was a pleasure to have her as a part of the team.”