Q: When did you first start playing tennis?
A: I first started playing when I was 11, but I’ve been around tennis my whole life. My mom and older cousins all played before me, but I started lessons when I was 11.
Q: How many of your family members have played tennis at Hillsdale?
A: Four, including myself. My cousins, Dugan Delp, Sydney Delp, and Morgan Delp.
Q: Have you played any other sports?
A: I did a lot of dance. Before high school I did competitive dance, basketball, tennis, and softball. Then in high school I continued with tennis, dance and softball. So I stopped playing basketball once I got to high school.
Q: What do you most enjoy about playing tennis at Hillsdale?
A: My team and my coach. I of course like the sport but just getting to be around them is great. They’re very positive, fun, nice people to be around and it just makes it very enjoyable and a nice team to be around.
Q: Are there any moments that have stood out to you so far in your tennis career?
A: The best moment was at the G-MAC Championship last year. I mean, we had the expectation to win again basically because the team had the year before, but it’s of course still always a challenge and getting to cheer my team on and getting to see the progress of each person was really exciting and a great thing to be apart of. I loved getting to cheer on my team and seeing all the work for the whole team pay off.
Q: How do you think this season will go?
A: I think it will go well. In the fall we put a lot of time into improving our game, and I see all the girls on our team working hard. And our coach is really paying attention, so I think if we all pay attention we will have another good season in the spring.
Q: What brought you to Hillsdale?
A: I knew about the school because I had three older cousins who came here. But when it came time to look at schools, I visited Hillsdale and really liked the liberal arts curriculum and the core that transcends all different parts of academics and the emphasis on learning how to learn and becoming a better person through your college education. I was not playing tennis when I originally planned to go here. I didn’t become part of the team until the summer before. When I visited in the fall of my senior year, I met with coach and watched the team practice, but I didn’t know if I wanted to play in college or not, so I actually planned to go to Miami of Ohio and be on their dance team until April of my senior year. I really liked the actual school of Hillsdale, so I switched and I thought I didn’t want to play tennis. Then throughout the summer, without having played in a while, I missed the sport. So I called coach Nikki and asked if there was a spot and she said yes and I’m very happy that happened.
Q: What are you majoring in?
A: I want to major in economics and politics. I really like economics so far. I haven’t taken too many classes, but I like how it’s sort of putting big ideas into common sense terms and so the things you talk about in class seem sort of obvious but are also like I never would have come to that on my own and then I like politics a lot because I like looking at the older writers or more of the political theory and applying that to modern things happening today and I especially lie thinking about how the two relate to each other bc I think neither can be separate and you have to consider both so I like how they work together.
Q: What are your favorite classes?
A: Christianity and Politics is my favorite course so far, I haven’t taken too many politics classes, but I like Dr. Grant a lot because of what I said about why I like politics in general; I like when he talks about modern things helping relate a book like St. Augustine’s “City of God” to our modern culture. I took Dr. Wolfram’s Introduction to Political Economy last semester, which was my first exposure to economics and I really liked that because it was the first time I had learned about simple economic things like supply and demand curves. It was really eye-opening and made me realize it was something I’d like to study. It felt like time spent reading for that class flew by, so I knew I wanted to study this subject further because of that course.
