Norris Adjusting to College Life, Tennis
8/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
By Jay Hinton
TCU Athletics Media Relations
FORT WORTH, Texas — The last four years have been anything but normal for TCU freshman tennis player Marie Norris.
A native of Burdett, Kan., (located just seven miles from the hometown of TCU head football coach Gary Patterson), Norris trained in Boca Raton, Fla., while taking her high school classes through the Florida Virtual School. In that time, she developed into a blue-chip recruit who has been ranked among the nation's top 10 junior players.
Entering her freshman campaign, Norris will have to get used to teammates, a traditional school format, roommates, a new coach and a collegiate training regime.
"What Marie will bring is a normal expectation of the quantity of work involved in playing at a high level, which is nice to have on your team," TCU women's tennis coach Lee Taylor Walker said. "She just gets the reality of how many repetitions it takes to be good in our sport."
The one thing that isn't unfamiliar to Norris is the city of Fort Worth and the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. Last year, Norris played in the USTA Pro Circuit event, and it's where she fell in love with TCU and everything the university had to offer.
"Initially, I wasn't that interested, but I played in the Fort Worth 10K last year and I visited and I loved it. I knew this was where I wanted to go," Norris said. "I like Lee, and It's so pretty here. I didn't know much about TCU until Lee talked about it. I didn't know anything about the old coach or any of the girls on the team."
Norris is slowly working into the college scene. She came to campus for summer school and to train. She is also living with some of her teammates, who have given her a little insight on the college game.
"They said it's really competitive and the team environment is totally different from what I am used to and what they were used to. It's different than juniors," Norris said. "I think anyone coming into a new place is going to be nervous. All the people and my teammates were welcoming and it's been easier than I thought."
Norris is playing in the 2015 Holt Jeep $10K Fort Worth Women's USTA Pro Circuit Event in Fort Worth again this week in preparation for her first foray into college tennis later this month.
"She's got good court awareness. She doesn't play many stupid shots, and she's got some weapons too," Walker said. "She has the ability to grind out and break down her opponent mentally and physically. She also has some big ground strokes, and she can step up and hit some aggressive balls. I like that she can do both, and I think she's going to develop and learn when to apply this at the right time."
For now, Norris will continue to focus on the little things.
"I need to adjust to the school and actually having a team," she said. "I think we can achieve a lot. Four of us have been living together, and we are getting along and mix well. Practices are fun and we're working hard."
Norris will play in the quarterfinals of the singles main draw bracket beginning at 8 a.m., on Friday on the Bernard J. 'Tut' Bartzen Varsity Courts.
Players Mentioned
