Lingman Supports Shots by Setting Sights on Success

Susanna Lingman always had the shots: the inside-out forehand, the two-handed backhand down the line and a fluid, powerful serve.

But this year, the Woodbridge High senior also had the look. Even opposing coaches noticed it.

As Sunny Hills Coach Steve White strolled past Lingman during the early rounds of the Southern Section individual tournament, he became fixated.

“Watch how she focuses,” White said. “Look at her concentration, her intensity. She has blocked everything else out but what’s going on inside the lines. Now that is an athlete.”

And that is the look of a winner.

The Harvard-bound Lingman accomplished her preseason goal by winning every set she played in a dual match--going 60-0 in singles and 16-0 in doubles--and she came within one match of winning the section individual singles tournament.

“It was almost perfect,” Lingman said. “I would like to have focused for one more match.”

She lost that last match to Corona del Mar junior Brittany Reitz, 6-3, 6-1, but Lingman was still the overwhelming choice of the county’s coaches as The Times’ Orange County girls’ tennis player of the year.

“She’s a terrific tennis player,” Canyon Coach Will Wilkins said. “She’s a good sport and she’s great for high school tennis. She won every match but the last one.”

Now that she has a chance to reflect on that last match, Lingman wonders if she wanted it badly enough.

“I was thinking about winning instead of playing my game,” she said. “Brittany really wanted it. I guess I wasn’t as eager. Maybe I thought I would win because I was supposed to.

“There was also a lot of pressure. It was the finals, the last high school match of my career. I just didn’t have it that day.”

But Lingman had it every other day this season. In 60 sets, her closest victory was 6-3, against Lindsey Butterwick of Laguna Beach early in the season.

Before the season began, Lingman announced she wanted to have an undefeated senior year.

“That was pressure, but it was good pressure,” she said. “I needed something to get me through all my matches. And this year, I wanted to make my mark.”

Susanna is the second Lingman to make her mark as a Times’ county player of the year. Her brother, David, received the boys’ tennis honor in 1999. She will also be the second Lingman to play tennis at Harvard. David played one season there, but he is taking this school year off to test his game on the pro satellite tour.

Susanna is planning on playing four years at Harvard, but she also has aspirations to play pro tennis.

“I’m working toward it,” she said. “There’s a lot more work that needs to go into it. But I think I have a chance if I can just refine all parts of my game.”

Lingman will begin the refining and the preparations for college tennis by playing women’s open tournaments and a few junior international and pro satellite events this spring and summer.