SU’s progress personified by senior Jones

Chelsea Jones is the blueprint.

For the Syracuse tennis team, Jones has embodied the Orange’s growth during coach Luke Jensen’s first four years. And as Jensen likes to think of it, Jones has been his metaphor for where this team has gone in his tenure as head coach.

‘She is just a massive overachiever,’ he said, ‘a girl that just wanted to be a walk-on and ended up earning four years of varsity letters and earned a scholarship.’

Four years ago, Syracuse tennis was a blip on the Big East tennis map. In Jensen’s first year, the team went 11-9. Jones — who hadn’t played tennis since her junior year in high school — was a freshman walk-on floundering against top-level competition. She finished that first year with a 2-18 overall record.

One entire college career later, Jones has matured like any other college senior. But she has matured with Jensen. She has matured at the pace of the program. And now, in her senior year, Jones has become a formidable doubles option for Jensen in a year in which the Orange compiled its best record in school history (18-3).

Despite the arrival of first-year stars CC Sardinha and Eleanor Peters, Jensen still considers Jones the most important player to this team. And this year, she has done more than enough to back up her coach’s claims with a 20-5 overall record (17-4 doubles).

‘For every personal coach, everyone who’s trying to change a culture and get a program off the ground, there’s going to be that No. 1,’ Jensen said. ‘The No. 1 establishes the ball and everyone else follows.’

In 2007, both Jensen and Jones were essentially ‘freshmen’ in a new and unfamiliar situation. There was no way to predict how much they would affect the revival of the program together. Now with that 18-3 record, the answer is clear. But it hasn’t been easy.
Her improvements have mirrored the progression of the program from mediocre and stagnant to competitive and hungry, and she serves as an example to every player that Jensen coaches.

‘There will never be another Chelsea Jones because she went so far in such a short period of time that she will always be the No. 1 on this team,’ Jensen said.

Jones’ success is a direct result of the changes Jensen has made, as his focus has been to maintain a positive attitude. Players know that if they throw their rackets or yell, they will get pulled off the court and be forced to forfeit.

Jones displays that attitude every time she steps on the court, and that translated into her game. She increased her winning percentage every year, finishing the 2010 regular season with that 20-5 record. Her composure and willingness to improve are big reasons why Jensen sees her as his go-to player.

The turnaround in her play on the court coincided with a significant attitude transformation on the SU squad, Jensen said. Mary Jones, Chelsea’s mother, noticed it early in her daughter’s career.

Though Jones’ contributions are noticeable in that aspect, her mother acknowledges that Jensen’s presence did nothing but help the disposition of the Orange.

‘It has changed 100 percent,’ Mary Jones said. ‘Before, it seemed like everybody had their scholarships and had a free ride. It didn’t matter if they won or lost. And now the momentum and the energy and the positive atmosphere with the team with Luke and (SU assistant coach Shelley George) have changed it so much.
‘It just makes it alive.’

Jones is the only member of the team to play with Jensen for four years. And she also gives all the credit of the program’s resurgence to the coaches.

‘(Jensen has) done so much work with this team and it shows,’ Jones said. ‘Each year we get better and better, and it just shows how much this coaching staff has worked, how much they’ve contributed to this team and this program.’

To Jensen, the coach-to-player relationship is a two-way road. And with just the Big East tournament looming before the end of Jones’ career, Jones and Jensen continue to embody that metaphor of the two-way road.

But the road is almost over. And as the end nears, Jensen has had a chance to look back on that shared experience.

‘I came in with her, I was a rookie,’ Jensen said. ‘I was a freshman in coaching, and I learned a ton from Chelsea Jones. She has made me the coach that I am right now.’

alguggen@syr.edu
jakrakow@syr.edu