Due to her family background, former Girls Preparatory School standout Claire Bartlett might have been predisposed to taking up tennis, but she has explored other activities as well. She tried basketball, soccer, swimming and volleyball, as well as drama growing up, but none of them had the same appeal.

“When she was younger, she didn’t play a lot,” GPS tennis coach Sue Bartlett — Claire’s mom — said. “We taught her to be passionate about something — you enjoy life that much more if you have a passion.”

In addition to her mother’s tennis background, Claire’s father, Billy, was the middle school tennis coach at GPS, while Billy’s father, Tommy, is a former head tennis coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, so tennis was a large part of Claire’s life.

“We figured she’d either love it or hate it,” Sue said. “We just wanted her to be able to learn the life lessons that sports teach you, but once she got into tennis, she definitely had advantages because she always had somebody to take her to hit.”

Claire started to play in national tournaments when she was 12, causing her to quit volleyball after her sixth-grade year, but she made the right decision. She went on to be a three-time state singles champion at GPS and helped lead the Bruisers to three team championships as well. Individually, she was ranked as high as No. 6 nationally in the Girls 18s division.

For her, the first team title was the most memorable.

“We had to face Knoxville Webb and hadn’t beaten them before,” Claire, now a freshman on the University of Virginia tennis team, said. “It came down to the last doubles’ match, it was around 1 a.m. and the lights went out while they were in a tie-breaker. When the girls started playing again and we finally won, it was real dramatic — there’s no feeling like that.

“I was really fortunate to be on great teams and to have my mom as my coach — you don’t really get to have that often,” she continued. “I felt we were really deep most years and that we pulled together when we needed to. It was amazing to be a part of those state championships. Not everybody gets to experience that, so it was a great thing.”

Her most nerve-racking moment in high school came in the semifinals of the state individual tournament as a junior.

“I was down four match points to Pope John Paul’s Gabriela Rangel, and I was thinking, ‘It’s not going to be fun coming home,” Claire said. She went on to win 5-7, 6-3, 8-6 (7-2) on her way to her second consecutive state individual title.

“Somehow I pulled it out.”

Claire’s off-the-court adjustment from high school to college has been just as hard, if not harder.

“I’m in Charlottesville, pretty far from home, so I can’t just come home when I want to,” she said. “I was an only child, so it’s also been an adjustment living with people. A lot is expected in classes as well as tennis, so it’s been about balancing things out.

“Tennis is about the same. I played in a lot of junior tournaments, so there are a lot of people I’d either played before or seen before. In college, there just aren’t as many easy matches — there’s not a bad college player out there.”