KNOXVILLE - When the Tennessee women's tennis players grab their cellphones and open the GroupMe application used to facilitate communication within the team, they are greeted with a subtle reminder of a lofty ideal.
The name of the team's group message thread, bestowed by second-year head coach Alison Ojeda, is "championship culture."
"We work toward that vision every day," said junior Sadie Hammond, the team's No. 1 singles player. "We always talk about it."
After missing the NCAA tournament in 2015 and 2016, the Lady Vols are back in the team event for the second straight season under Ojeda and making strides toward restoring the culture of NCAA tournament runs that included Ojeda as an All-America player at Tennessee from 1998 to 2002.
Tennessee, ranked 38th nationally, will take on No. 33 Oregon on Friday at 1 p.m. in Durham, N.C., in the tournament's first round. The team is not expected to push deep into the tournament, but on a roster with no seniors that lost its top players from a year ago, there are signs the culture Ojeda craves is materializing.
The doubles partnership of Hammond and redshirt sophomore Gabby Schuck is one example. Schuck has battled through a lengthy list of injures to combine with Hammond to go 20-9 in doubles matches this season. It was a partnership that came together again after Hammond went to Ojeda's office to make the case for why she and Schuck, who roomed together as freshmen and are close friends, should be paired on the court.
"She was just unbelievably mature in the way she handled that conversation that my heart felt 100 percent comfortable and secure in hearing her say what she had to say," Ojeda said. "So I thought, 'You know what? Let's do it.'"
Since a two-week break from playing together in March, the tandem is 10-2 in the team's No. 2 doubles slot.
"That is part of a championship culture," Ojeda said. "I don't think Sadie would have done that a year ago. She's just grown up so much. She's the reason that tandem got back together."
Hammond has a strong serve while Schuck embraced the role of a "grinder," who wears opponents down until eventually they make mistakes. It's an apt role for Schuck, who had to grind through a stress fracture in her back during her true freshman season, then a torn labrum in her left hip that required surgery and is now playing on a torn labrum in her right hip.
"It only makes you stronger," Schuck said of her bouts with injury. "It makes you tougher. I love the game so much, so I didn't want to give it up and I was willing to do anything to get back. That was what kept me going."
The Schuck-Hammond duo forms with a young and promising No. 1 tandem of sophomore Ariadna Riley and freshman Kaitlin Staines to give the Lady Vols a fighting chance of winning the doubles point in every team match.
Winning the doubles point will be especially critical Friday against Oregon during the heightened stakes of the NCAA tournament, which brings another opportunity to inch toward establishing the championship culture the players are reminded of each time they open the GroupMe app.
"We've talked about how this is our team for next year," Hammond said. "We can use everything that we've learned from and all of our experiences. We're going to use it next year, and that's something really cool because I know it's going to give us such a huge advantage going into next year."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.