Hannah Dattilo has matured a lot over the years.
And the East Hamilton girls' tennis team's improvement has coincided with her maturity.
The team's lone senior has been in the No. 1 singles position since she started playing at the school. As a freshman, she admitted she was more worried about her individual play than the team results. She was hopeful for better results as a team, but not really concerned with them.
Now as the elder stateswoman, Dattilo has focused on becoming more of a team leader, and the results have the program in its first-ever state tournament. The Lady Hurricanes face Houston in the Class AAA semifinals at Old Fort Park today at 2 p.m. EDT.
East Hamilton is 18-0 this season, having knocked off last season's District 5-AAA champion Soddy-Daisy in the regular season and 5-4 in a one-match playoff for the district title. That match got off to a rocky start, as the Lady Hurricanes dropped two of the three doubles matches and had to rally. They did so, winning four of the six singles matches, capped off with a tiebreaker win by freshman Avalon Langley at No. 4 singles.
It was at that point that Dattilo, as well as coach Michael Jackson, felt a spot in the state tournament was possible.
"I've been hoping to go to Murfreesboro for the past couple of years," Dattilo said. "I thought we had a chance to make it last year and didn't, but we've been really fighting hard to make it as a team.
"Avalon's match was so insanely close, but she pulled it out, and at that moment I was so excited for the whole team. I really thought we could make it, and now we can go as high as we set our sights."
After that, the Lady Hurricanes beat Cookeville for the Region 3 championship and knocked out Murfreesboro Oakland for a spot in the state final four. They've done so with a lineup that features three freshmen and two juniors along with Dattilo.
Jackson feels good about the talent and depth going into today's match against a Houston team that was a state semifinalist a year ago.
"This is by far and away the best season we've ever had," Jackson said. "I've just had a tremendous amount of trust in the girls from the start of the season. Just knowing how hard they've worked individually, I knew I could count on each player to take care of their spot."
Dattilo will be continuing her tennis career at NCAA Division III Oglethorpe University. She spent some time Monday taking care of paperwork for the Atlanta school but has now turned her focus completely to bringing home some hardware from Murfreesboro.
"I'm hoping we make it to the finals," she said. "I think we have a good chance to win the semifinals if we play well, but I really want us to do our best and play our hardest. At that point, if we win, great, but if we lose I hope we do so leaving it all out on the court.
"That's our biggest goal."
It's also a sign of maturity.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @gene henleytfp.