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Never predictable, Cooke kept opponents on edge
| Friday, Dec 28 2007 10:15 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Dec 28 2007 10:17 PM
Lyndsay Cooke's routine is not, by the very definition of the word, routine.
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Yes, the Bakersfield Christian sophomore has a habit of success. She placed second in the Central Section tennis tournament this past fall and finished the year 29-1 in singles play. That's earned her The Californian's Girls Tennis Singles Player of the Year honors.
The secret to her success is what's not so routine. Cooke changes her style of play for each of her opponents.
"I really do try to play each player differently," Cooke said. "I'm not so amazing that I can go out and blow anybody off the court. I just play my way through the match each point, thinking about what they aren't good at."
The results, on the other hand, were amazing. Cooke cruised through South Sequoia League play without a remote challenge and won both the Clovis Peachtree Tournament and Stockdale's Lynch Cup.
"To me, she's the best player in the Valley because of her mental toughness," BCHS coach Frank Thiessen said. "Everything she does, she tried to do to perfectoin, and she plans everything out on what she's going to do."
That was especially the case in the Central Section championships. Cooke cruised through her first three matches, losing just five games in six sets, until meeting with East's Nancy Ramirez in a semifinal.
"I knew she could get really on and hits the ball deep," Cooke said. "So I knew I had to play far behind the base line and play balls in, and she'd eventually miss."
The strategy worked to perfection, and Cooke won 6-1, 6-0.
The championship brought a different challenge in the person of Gabrielle Gatewood of Visalia-Redwood.
"It was about knowing where to put the ball and also having the ability to get a step or two inside the base line," Thiessen said.
Cooke won the first set 6-0, but then, suddenly, the routine that had worked so well for her stopped.
She lost a couple of close points, Thiessen recalled, that could have given her control of the second set. Instead she lost it in a tiebreaker and dropped the deciding set 6-3.
It was a bitter end to a magical season. But with two years left in her career, you can bet she'll get back to that winning routine.
"It'll never happen again," Thiessen said. "She's that type of person. She knows what she has to do to win, and if she doesn't have the tools, she'll work on those things until she has them perfected."