Sophie Blauwkamp is going to state
By: Grayden Lubbers
With the 2025 season coming to an end, and the Hamilton Girls Varsity Tennis team qualifying for the MHSAA State Tournament, there are a lot of thoughts going through their heads.
The end of the season is always emotional, teammates graduating, last time they’ll play together. But a lot of these girls have immensely strong relationships.
A couple of those girls are Abby Atwood and Sophie Blauwkamp. Playing together at 2nd doubles, they have to have each other’s back if they want to win matches, and that’s exactly what they do.
“When my partner [Abby] isn’t playing well, I just try to talk her through it and like, try to make her feel better and tell her that she’ll be okay.”
With a tremendous normal-season record of 16-0, whilst still managing to place first in both the Conference and Regional Tournaments, proving the level of skill they both share to win difficult matches.
“Me and my partner have done really well and we’re like undefeated and everything like that, and we work really well together. Our skills just mesh together really well to win games.”
With the State Tournament coming up in just a couple days, the girls have to get ready for the teams that they are about to perform against. There are lots of ways that you can mentally prepare yourself for something that most people will never get to experience in their life. Sophie shared some of her favorite ways to get prepared.
“For an upcoming match I talk with my partner and my friends and we listen to music on the van rides even if Lubbers [Coach] doesn’t want to deal with it.”
Not a lot of people realize how extremely hard it is to go pro in a sport, Sophie knows exactly how difficult it would be.
“I don’t think I’m going to play past high school.”
There are so many memories captured in High School sports, getting to travel to the University of Michigan to participate in the State Tournament is one of the greatest memories you can have.
Good luck to the Girls Varsity Tennis team and as Coach Lubbers says, go get ‘em!