Getting to Know 4-Year Varsity Girls Tennis Captain, Elizabeth Gormley

Elizabeth Gormley, ’21 is a 4-year Varsity tennis player, three of those her being the team captain and she is currently ranked number one on the Redwood team.

In 2017 and 2018, Gormley helped the Redwood girls’ tennis team win Division 2 Valley. In 2017, 2018, and 2019 they won WYL.

As a Freshman, Gormley placed third in WYL individuals. As a Sophomore, she placed second, and in her Junior year, she placed first. As you can see, she improved throughout her years of playing.

She also placed in the top eight of the CIF Central Section Individuals her Sophomore year and then the top 16 her Freshman and Junior year.

So far this season, Gormley is 4-1 in singles only to have lost to Division 1, Clovis West High School. However, she has wins against the top two Division 1 schools from last year’s season.

She has been playing tennis since she was about seven to eight years old and has participated in local tournaments held at various gyms by herself to improve her skills since then. She has also taken lessons from her private lesson coach, Evan Buchanan for about six years.

Gormley loves everything about tennis. She’s become very dedicated to the competitiveness of the sport and always strives to improve and do her absolute best every time she plays.

Gormley’s dad and Spanish professional tennis player, Rafael Nadal inspire her to be the very best she can be. Gormley says, “I love his [Nadal] intensity and the amount of effort that he puts into every point.”

Gormley’s dad, Travis Gormley has played tennis for about 38 years- including college. He played at Northern State University located in South Dakota. He taught Gormley everything she knows about tennis which is one of the many reasons why Gormley looks up to him. Mr. Gormley is a Physical Education teacher at Liberty Middle School.

Gormley’s mom, Jill Gormley is an engineer and works for the city of Fresno. Gormley also has two siblings- Nathan and Jocelyn Gormley. Nathan is 15 years old and is a Sophomore at Redwood. He also plays baseball and runs cross country. Jocelyn is 12 years old and is a 7th grader at Ridgeview Middle School.

The Gormley family owns two dogs- Jake who is a Sheppard Mix and Allie who is a Pitbull Terrier.

Gormley saw a major improvement in her skills when she first joined the Redwood tennis team her Freshman year. She says, “I think that the team atmosphere gave me a lot of motivation and helped me fall in love with the sport even more than I already was.”

Her favorite part about playing for the team is the memories she’s made with her teammates throughout the years.

Last year’s season, from 2019-2020, Gormley was the team’s most valuable player.

Redwood’s girls’ Varsity tennis coach, Matt Gong has coached Gormley for her four years at Redwood. Throughout these years, Gong says Gormley has been “extremely dependable when contributing to team matches.”

Gong says Gormley is an “extremely kind person.” To demonstrate this, she applauds the opponent’s shots, compliments teammates, and is just happy to be a part of the team, states Gong.

He also mentions that as years have gone by, Gormley has gotten better at taking the lead on the team, as she is a 3-year captain and 4-year Varsity player.

Not only is she this, but as mentioned before, she is also the number one ranked player on the team. With this important title, Gormley is looked up to by her teammates for “strong on-court leadership,” says Gong.

Gong believes Gormley has become an all-around player meaning she’s transferred from just focusing on defense and getting the ball back into play to transitioning between offense and defense seamlessly making her a tough player to compete against.

Gong hopes that Gormley will eventually transfer to a Division 1 or 2 schools after her time at College of the Sequoias if she chooses to.

A life motto Gormley tries to live by through her life and tennis playing is to “be 1 percent better every day.” She continues by explaining, “I have many goals that I want to achieve, but I can get discouraged if I don’t achieve success quickly. So I try and tell myself to be a little better every day so that I can eventually achieve what I set out to do.”

Gormley has many friends and family she can rely on in tough situations, but she’s more of a private person and tends to work through her problems by herself.

Not only is Gormley a star tennis player, but she is also a star in the classroom. She has a 4.0 GPA and takes AP Bio and an English class at College of the Sequoias. She is also involved in the California Scholarship Federation (CSF) club at Redwood.

Gormley was also a part of the girls’ wrestling team at Redwood during her Freshman and Sophomore year. She decided to quit because it became a big commitment and she wanted to focus solely on tennis.

Gormley plans on continuing her tennis career at the College of the Sequoias once she graduates and hopes to play for other teams afterward. She wants to pursue a career in either Special Education or English Language Arts.

Gormley knew she wanted to be a teacher since 6th grade. During that year, each student in her class paired up with kindergarteners and was called “buddies.” According to Gormley, they would do different activities and help the kindergartners with their work. She says this experience is what inspired her to want to become a teacher.

Other than tennis, Gormley also enjoys drawing and making projects in her 3-D Art class at Redwood. She says, “I really like completing a project that I’m happy with and feel proud of.”

She also likes to write. During her Junior year, Gormley took the Literature and Expression class offered at Redwood. During this class, she discovered she loves “being able to create a story and imaging a different reality,” she states.

Redwood Varsity girls’ tennis star, Elizabeth Gormley has much more to give for her last season of high school tennis and a new journey to begin as she continues her career at College of the Sequoias and possibly other teams in the future.

Watch her play at the team’s next match on Tuesday, April 13th, 2021 at 4:00 PM as she faces Lemoore on the opponent’s courts.

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