Jesuit has had a long and rich history with their tennis program by winning state titles but never winning a mixed doubles tournament until this January at the Keller Classic Invitational. Zack Vander Heiden, who is a freshman at Jesuit, and Nina Quirk, who is a senior at Hockaday, made history for Jesuit by winning their first mixed doubles tournament.
After winning this tournament, Coach McDaniel realized this could be the first time a mixed doubles team has ever won the whole tournament, so he decided to make sure by consulting with Jesuit archivist, Sheryl Row. Coach McDaniel and Row asked former tennis players throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s if they could recall or find any evidence of any other mixed doubles winner.
No one came up with a previous winner with a Jesuit/Ursuline or any other girl’s school. Coach McDaniel’s hunch turned out to be correct and Zack and Nina turned out to be the first mixed doubles champions.
This was also the first time for Zack and Nina to be on the same court with each other. They knew each other from their Junior Program training at Brookhaven Country Club but had never even hit with each other before the tournament in Keller. “We just talked before the first match about what each of our strengths are and how to use them together to our advantage,” Nina explained. Zack said, “Nina has a great return of serve and strong volleys so our opponents couldn’t pick on her.”
After winning a couple of early round matches, Nina & Zack beat the # 2 seeds from Southlake in the semi-finals in three sets. Then, they knocked off the # 1 seeded duos from Coppell 7 – 5, 6 -2 in the Championship Final. Zack is qualified in Super Champs 16’s in the USTA rankings while Nina is ranked in Girls 18’s Super Champs.
This also turned out to be the first time that a mixed doubles team has ever gotten past the second round much less won the whole tournament. Playing with Hockaday helps Jesuit get into tournaments because the tournaments don’t want to take a boys team because it makes it unbalanced. Thus, Jesuit and Hockaday play each other, even though it is more often as girls and boys singles.
Zack noted, “It’s kind of cool to know you did something for the first time. Particularly being my first year on the Jesuit team.” Nina said “I was very excited when we won the tournament! It was a long day of back-to-back matches with only 10 minute breaks in between matches!”
Nina also said “I am happy that we are the first team that has won mixed doubles! Hopefully we won’t be the last! I love playing mixed doubles because it is different from the singles and doubles I play in regular tournaments.”
Unfortunately, Zack & Nina won’t get an opportunity to defend their title in Keller next year. Nina is on her way to Cornell after graduation from Hockaday and Zack will be playing either Singles or Doubles in tournament play next spring.
