Two girls; both in the same sport; both want to achieve greatness with the support of family and friends on their side. They both earned a spot on the varsity team hoping for a good season. What they did not realize was the bond between them made the season much more special. 

Senior Morgan Dobos and Junior Maddie Kavenagh’s competitive spirit carries over in tennis, academics and daily life. The duo placed fourth in states as doubles. 

In tennis they put in the time to go over corrections and practices to do well during tournaments.

Kavenagh displays her competitive side in many ways. In academics Kavenagh takes honors courses, only expecting A’s. In daily life she plays board games with family, gunning to win, especially if it is Monopoly. Her hard work paid off this season winning the All-Suburban League 1st Team Recognition and USTA Diane NcNeal Junior Sportsmanship award. Before tennis, Kavenagh’s main hobby started out as dance, following in her older sister’s footsteps.

“I was a dancer for five years, but my oldest sister is now a professional ballet dancer, so she was always ahead of me and my other sister. I didn’t like being in the shadows of her,” Kavenagh said.

Kavenagh then decided she wanted to do something of her own. Being supportive of her sister in dance is where she found her interest to play tennis.

“We would drive past roads to take my sister to dance, and I would always see this little bubble. I would ask ‘What is that mom?’ And she said ‘that’s tennis’ and I was like ‘oh, I wanna play tennis’,” Kavenagh said. 

It took a few weeks of asking before her parents decided to take Kavenagh to her first set of lessons. She has been working on her skills since then. Her coaches motivate her the most, but she finds the time to work on her goals for herself so that she can see the results she wants to see when playing the game. 

“I am a perfectionist . . . If I set a goal for myself, I have to achieve it. Once I started playing tennis, I’ve always wanted to perfect my skills and just be the best that I can be,” Kavenagh said. 

Having this perfectionist mindset causes Kavenagh to believe she is putting the pressure more on herself. 

“I don’t think anyone has caused me to be competitive; I think it’s just more myself,” Kavenagh said.

She considers this competitive mindset to be a positive trait that she will continue outside of high school.

“I think it’s good not just for the ‘I have to win’ part but more for the ‘I want to succeed’. That way I know that I won’t stop until I’m satisfied,” Kavenagh said. 

Kavenagh has a strategy to reach her goals, whether in academics or tennis. This way she has a clear path to succeed, and if she does not, she can figure out what she needs to fix to reach her goal. 

“I am really big on writing stuff down. I have a whole notebook full of any tennis correction I’ve ever been given. Same with studying; I write down everything I need to do for the night, and everything has to be crossed off before I go to sleep,” Kavenagh said. 

Teresa Kavenagh, Maddie Kavenagh’s mom, talked about other traits that Maddie carries. Including a “sense of humor” and “her friendliness.” Teresa Kavenagh explained why her daughter is competitive.

“She puts it on herself because she is a perfectionist, so she’s always striving in everything she does to do her best,” Kavenagh said. 

Teresa Kavenagh talked about how they got Kavenagh into tennis. She said it was something they kept “putting her off” with. Now they are so glad they were able to get Maddie into a hobby she loves to do and are proud of her success. Teresa Kavenagh talked about her feelings about Maddie’s future. 

“I hope she continues at the pace she is going, and I hope she gets everything she wants out of tennis and her future,” Kavenagh said. 

Tennis is known to be an individual sport but it is still important to have a good teammate. Senior Morgan Dobos was Maddie’s teammate on the varsity team for this season. Their general connection and sportsmanship could be explained why they made such a good pair. Dobos won the award for player of the year. Dobos explained why Kavenagh is making strides in tennis.

“If you do have success in tennis, it makes you feel like you are very skilled in something. All the practice that you put into being skilled in tennis helps,” Dobos said.

Dobos talked about a time where Kavenagh’s positivity and friendliness with her which helped Maddie and her teammate during the tournament. 

“There was one time when we went to sectionals, and we didn’t play the whole day, [but Kavenagh] was so positive about the whole experience,” Dobos said. 

The uneventful game she and her teammate went through ended up being much more memorable than what it was going to be.

“Even though we didn’t play, it was one of the most fun games because she made the experience very positive and optimistic,” Dobos said. 

Dobos also explained how tennis and academics are related.

“Since tennis is more of an individual sport at times, it allows you to go against one other person, which can transfer over to academics because that sport is a one on one [and can be that way when it comes to] getting good grades,”Dobos said. 

Kavenagh will continue her competitive spirit next year and into college. 

Dobos also has had a history with tennis and her perfectionism. She started playing tennis at a very young age, finding tennis to be very enjoyable and continued throughout the years including high school.

“I started when I was six, so I don’t really think I had a choice. But I enjoyed it, so I kept playing and it was the most fun sport for me,” Dobos said. 

Dobos continued tennis with Kavenagh by her side. Both girls carried the mindset that Morgan described as “working really hard to get as close to perfect as I can.”

The two girls played double matches for their tournaments. The difference between singles and doubles in tennis is having one person on each side instead of two. Dobos appreciates having Kavenagh on the court for double matches. 

“You always have someone to lean on, and it was honestly a 50/50 effort, so we were able to take pressure 50/50 and that just helped us be more successful,” Dobos said. 

Dobos explained how they understand the pain of making a mistake when striving for perfection. 

“[If] one of us would miss a shot, it was easier for the other person to have empathy for that and know what to do to make them feel better,” Dobos said. 

Dobos tries to deal with perfectionism by focusing on bigger goals during a match. 

“I try to focus on the bigger picture and not let the little things get in the way because I don’t want to let myself be the reason I don’t get to win when I go,” Dobos said.

One way Dobos helps reach her own goals is by creating a summary of the practice to shape her skills. 

“Sometimes I like to take a log after we have a practice and just record how I’m feeling [from] what I did before practice and what I did after practice that was either good or bad. Then I can go back and look at them to use those to help me in the future,” Dobos said. 

Kavenagh was also glad to spend her time on the tennis team with Dobos since she was the only one to keep Kavenagh calm for a match.

“She is the only person that can calm me down. I get very stressed before matches, and she is always there and just slaps me and [says] ‘Maddie, you need to calm down’. [Dobos] comes across as very quiet, but she is really not,” Kavenagh said. 

Kavenagh explained the importance of having a good teammate in an individual sport like tennis.

“I think it matters a lot. Since we both play singles, we both have to deal with a lot more of the mental struggles of tennis having it just be us on the court and so the positions that we are, our courts are right next to each other whenever we play. We are always there to hype each other up and kind of throw in some funny stuff to get our minds off of it for a split second,” Kavenagh said. 

Kavenagh has bittersweet emotions at the fact that this will be Dobos’ last year on the team.

“I took it for granted. You really don’t realize how special friendships are until you play your last match together and you’re like ‘this is never gonna happen again’,” Kavenagh said. 

Dobos and Kavenagh will cherish the memories they made throughout their years together in tennis. Both strive to do their best wherever life takes them from the skills they gained in tennis.