Lily VanDixhorn
Lily VanDixhorn competed on varsity tennis this past fall season. She comes from a family who plays tennis and owns their own tennis club, College Park Athletic Club in Deerfield. She started her athletic career young but didn’t begin competing until she was in fourth grade, where she focused only on tennis, no longer soccer and basketball.
“I like the challenge of tennis because it is just you against your opponent. It was also fun to be on a team for the first time, where you are playing your opponent but also cheering for your teammates at the same time to win their matches,” expressed VanDixhorn over email.
She spends two to three hours a day playing tennis, whether that be practice, matches, lessons or going to the tennis club. Her commitment doesn’t end after the high school season, though. When she’s not competing for LHS, she’s working on her game every day of the week and playing in tournaments every other weekend.
“During the weekdays, I need to really use all my free time to do homework. On the weekends when I have tournaments, I really don’t have time to hang out with my friends,” said VanDixhorn over email.
On varsity, she competes at court one singles, which means she is the top singles player.
“[VanDixhorn] likes to hang back and kind of outlast [the competitor]. We call it grinding, she likes to grind. Her hustle is amazing. She gets every ball back. She really wins the big points in the big games because of her tenacity,” said varsity tennis coach Dan Kiernan.
Her major achievements in this past season include finishing second at the Fremd Invite, third at the Buffalo Grove Invite and fifth in the North Suburban Conference tournament for court one singles.
“Other than her tennis skills, her energy level is extremely high. She brings kind of a competitiveness to the group which certainly helps with her leadership skills,” stated Kiernan.
In the future, VanDixhorn hopes to compete in Division I tennis in college.
Lily is one of two freshmen on the varsity tennis team this year, including Amanda Black, a staff member on DOI.