Dec. 10, 2004
Irish women’s tennis head coach Jay Louderback announced recently that Katie Potts (Brookfield, Wis./Divine Savior Holy Angels H.S.) and Kelcy Tefft (Enid, Okla./Chisholm H.S.) have signed national letters of intent to enroll at Notre Dame and join his team in the fall of 2005. Both are among the top 30 high school seniors in the current United States Tennis Association (USTA) 18-and-under national rankings.
“We are really excited to have both Katie and Kelcy coming in next year,” said Louderback. “We already have good athletes on our team, but these two will make us even more athletic; they were both multi-sport athletes in high school. When they begin to concentrate only on tennis, I think both of them will have huge upsides. Both Katie and Kelcy are used to competing in team sports, and I think that will really help them in college tennis.”
Potts, a 5-10 senior at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School in Milwaukee, won her second consecutive Wisconsin state singles title this fall, while also helping DSHA to the team state championship in ’04. Potts, the state singles runner-up in both 2001 and ’02, has been ranked as high as 56th in the nation in the USTA’s 18-and-under rankings. Currently at 60th, she is 26th among current high school seniors. Potts, also a standout on the DSHA basketball and soccer teams, won a 16-and-under National Open doubles title, in 2001. Potts, of Brookfield, will be just the second Wisconsin native ever to play for the Irish, following Sheboygan’s Robin Goldsmith, who played for the 1984 team, but did not earn a monogram.
“Katie is a good athlete and a great competitor,” said Louderback. “She always does whatever it takes to win matches, which will be a key for her in college. She has lot of potential for improvement since she played two other sports in high school. Just concentrating on tennis in college will give her a lot of opportunities to improve.”
Tefft, a 5-6 senior at Chisholm High School in northern Oklahoma, has to her credit seven Super National USTA doubles titles, including five partnering with current Irish freshman Brook Buck (Yukon, Okla./Oklahoma Christian School). Tefft has been as high as eighth in the USTA 18s singles rankings, and she also has one third-place finish in Super National singles competition. The Enid native, currently ranked 18th, is the sixth-highest ranked high school senior in the country. In addition to a Super National runner-up finish with Buck, Tefft also has won three doubles titles in National Opens, while claiming a pair of first-place results in singles and being the runner-up twice. Though she did not play prep tennis – as Chisholm does not field a team – Tefft is on the Longhorns’ basketball squad. She will be the seventh Oklahoma native – and the fourth in the last five years – to play for the Irish, but the first not from Tulsa or the greater Oklahoma City area. Buck is joined by two other Oklahomans on the current team: sisters senior captain Sarah Jane Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness H.S.) and junior Lauren Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness H.S.).
“Kelcy is such a good competitor in both singles and doubles,” said Louderback. “She will really help our doubles a lot, and I think she will make an impact in both our singles and doubles lineups next year. She is a very good counter-puncher, and she has a chance to be more aggressive in college, especially in singles.”
The current Irish squad will begin its dual-match schedule on Jan. 22 at Ohio State before opening its home slate on Sunday, Jan. 23 at Noon (EST) against Vanderbilt. Last spring, the Commodores reached the NCAA national semifinals and ended the season ranked #2 in the country.