Samantha Caswell's tennis career really got started at the Champions Club, where she played in her first tournament as a kid.
So it's fitting the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior's last Southern Conference tournament will take place there as well.
The UTC teams play in first-round matches of the SoCon tournament today, with both taking on Mercer. The seventh-seeded men (8-15) face the Bears at 10:30 a.m.; the fourth-seeded UTC women (9-7) are scheduled to begin their match at 1 p.m.
First-round winners move on to Saturday's semifinals, with the championship matches taking place Sunday.
This week, Caswell was named a second-team all-conference singles player for the third consecutive season, after finishing 6-9 at No. 1 singles. She was the 2015 SoCon freshman of the year and has been named second-team all-conference in doubles twice.
Her doubles partner, Emma Van Hee, made the 2018 SoCon women's all-freshman team, and sophomore No. 1 Niklas Gerdes received the men's Don Bunch/Buddy Hartsell Sportsmanship Award. Mocs have won that honor six times, including three in the past four years.
A five-time Times Free Press Best of Preps selection and four-time winner of the girls' tennis player of the year award, Caswell was a four-star prospect who admitted she didn't feel "pushed" as much in her Baylor School matches. That hasn't been the case in college, where she said she hadn't had an easy match - "maybe two times as a freshman" - but has had to adjust her mindset.
"I now go out not expecting to win and knowing I was never going to have an easy match," she said. "No one is going to give it to you."
UTC coach Chad Camper inherited Caswell entering her junior season and has seen her grow just in their time together.
"Samantha has an unusual game, but she hits a big ball and I like that," Camper said. "She leads the team. She's pulled us through some big wins, so I'm hoping here in the last conference tournament she'll be able to do the same for us."
It will be the second time during Caswell's career that the Champions Club has hosted the SoCon tournament. The Mocs women lost in the semifinals to East Tennessee State in 2016 and fell to Samford in the semifinals in 2014, when they hosted.
Camper noted the importance of getting off to a good start - by winning the doubles point, something the Mocs did on April 10, when they defeated Mercer 4-3.
Caswell is happy for a final tournament at the same place where her competitive career started.
"I'm just so excited it's here so that my parents can come, my friends and family can come, and I can play at a place I'm familiar with," she said.
"I'm just so ecstatic it's here."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.