July 29, 2024 • 36 mins
Today on Navy Sports Central, we celebrate the Navy Women's Tennis Team's exciting run to their first Patriot League Championship! Coach Keith Puryear sits down with us to share how the team laid the groundwork in the fall to put them in the best possible position to compete for the title in the spring. He'll also take us through the thrilling moments of Kate Lee's remarkable comeback against Boston University and the unwavering spirit of senior players Samantha Johns and Stella Ribaudo, who battled through their injuries all year long, but never wavered when it came to representing what Navy Women's Tennis was all about.
Coach Puryear's candid reflections on these emotional highs and lows offer a powerful narrative of dedication and teamwork. This episode is a testament to the relentless spirit of Navy sports, filled with stories of triumph and unyielding determination.
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We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
What is the longest home match winning streak for the Navy Women's Tennis team in dual meets?
A. 11
B. 17
C. 20
D. 23
You can answer by sending us a text message using the link at the top of the show notes. I'll also post the question on our group Facebook Page.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody.
My name is Karl Darden and I'dlike to welcome and thank all of
you for joining us today onNavy Sports Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
We are getting close to thestart of another college
football season.
The Mids will be reporting tocamp on July 31st, with the
first game against Bucknellcoming up just a month later.
(00:34):
So things should start fallinginto place over the next several
weeks and you'll definitelywant to be here for our deep
dive segment.
Our guests will be Navy women'stennis coach Keith Puryear, who
led the Mids to their firstPatriot League Championship this
past April.
(00:54):
All of that, plus our questionof the day, is coming up, so
please stay with us.
All right, it is great to haveyou back for another episode of
Navy Sports Central.
Whether you are a regularlistener or this is your first
visit, thanks for taking thetime.
There's not a ton of stuff goingon in the yard right now,
(01:16):
except for the class of 2028arriving for Plebe Summer about
a month ago.
Among them were 69 footballplayers.
Seven of them were listed asquarterbacks and, if you're
curious about the position orpositions that brought in the
highest number of recruits.
That would be the offensiveline with 11.
And next up were the safetieson defense, with six recruits
there.
But the one guy that got myattention was a fellow named
(01:37):
Wayne Pritz.
He is from Argyle, texas, whichis about 30 miles north of Fort
Worth.
Pritz is a tight end who islisted at 6'7", 235 pounds.
That makes him the tallest guyon the team, and since we know
that coach Drew Kronick's newoffense is looking to use tight
ends more, pritz could make agood target if he's able to pick
up the offense good enough toget on the field his first year.
By the way, I'm not sure if Imentioned it before, but the
(02:00):
captains this season arefullback Daba Fofana and
linebacker Colin Ramos.
Fofana has rushed for over1,100 yards in his career so far
, while averaging a solid fouryards per carry.
Ramos led the team in tackleslast season with 110, while
racking up nearly 200 during hisfirst three years at linebacker
.
So both of these guys are solidchoices based on their
accomplishments, and I'm lookingforward to seeing the kind of
(02:26):
impact they're going to havethis year.
Besides that, there's not muchelse happening around the yard,
about.
The only other thing thatgrabbed my attention this past
week was the hiring of SteveGladstone to become the coach of
the heavyweight rowing team.
He takes over for Rob Friedrich, who moved over to an in-house
position with Navy Athletics.
The interesting thing is thatGladstone had retired from Yale
after a long and stellar careerat five different universities.
He also won 14 IRAchampionships along the way, and
(02:48):
that ties him for the most inthe history of the sport.
Gladstone's biography alsostated that he once coached the
US national team and he was aselector for the 1972 Olympic
team.
I mean, clearly this guy is alegend.
He's been involved with thesport for over 50 years, which
only had me wondering what elsedoes he have left to prove?
So I reached out to myclassmate, scott Gordon, who was
(03:08):
a member of the heavyweightrowing team when we were at
Annapolis, and he had a prettyinteresting take that really
made a lot of sense to me once Ithought about it.
It turns out that CoachGladstone brought an assistant
with him, named Matt Fleur.
Fleur is actually a 2012graduate of the Naval Academy
who's been at Yale for the lasttwo years, and he was also an
assistant coach with the midsfor a few years before that.
Anyway, gordy told me that onepossible strategy was to have
(03:31):
Coach Gladstone lay thegroundwork for a few years and
then turn things over to Fleur,and I can definitely see that
happening.
Fleur is basically in his early30s, so you know, thinking
about that scenario, he could bein place for quite a long time
at Navy.
Thinking about that scenario,he could be in place for quite a
long time at Navy.
Okay, that pretty much does itfor this update.
Our deep dive segment is comingup next, so please stick with us
(03:52):
as Coach Keith Puryear takes usthrough.
The has spanned over threedecades.
Prior to arriving in Annapolisin 2008, he coached at the
(04:15):
University of Maryland,baltimore County.
For 19 seasons.
Puryear has been the only coachthe Navy Women's Tennis Program
has ever known.
It was a club sport when hefirst took over, and a year
after that they began competingat the varsity level.
Going into his 16th season asthe head coach of the women's
tennis team, puryear has rackedup a very impressive 194 wins,
while going 51-13 in conferenceplay.
(04:36):
His teams have always competedhard, both in and out of the
Patriot League, year in and yearout, and this season in
particular turned out to betruly historic.
So I'm extremely pleased tohave Coach Keith Puryear join us
today to talk about the MIDSchampionship season, including
that exciting Patriot Leaguefinal against Boston University.
Coach Puryear, it is so greatto have you here on Navy Sports
Central.
(04:56):
Thanks for taking the time.
Coach Puryear (04:58):
Yep.
Thanks for having me, Carl.
Karl (05:00):
All right, let's go ahead and get right into it.
I think that one of the thingsI wanted to go kind of set the
stage for the whole discussionis to go back to the very
beginning of the year.
So last fall you've welcomedyour team back, You've got a
couple of seniors plus a gooddistribution of you know,
freshmen, sophomores and juniors.
What I'm curious about is howtypical a breakdown across all
(05:23):
the classes is that, and by thatI mean just having two seniors.
Is that a bit of an anomaly, ordoes it happen more often than
some people might think?
Coach Puryear (05:31):
It's fluctuated a little bit since we've been to
the academy.
We were supposed to have three,but we had one young lady who
chose not to play that year.
So we did have three for mostof the time which those guys
were there, but sometimes abreakdown.
It varies from year to year.
We've had years of just a yearbefore we only have one, one
first class or one senior.
Karl (05:52):
Okay.
Coach Puryear (05:53):
The year before that we had three.
So it is.
It has fluctuated a little bit.
It has been rare for us to havefour seniors.
It's normally been somewherebetween two, two to three.
Karl (06:04):
Got it, got it Okay.
So you welcomed them back.
You're coming off a year whereyou got to the semifinals in the
Patriot League Championshipsthe previous year.
What was your vision forsuccess for this year's team,
and how did you communicate thatto your players?
Coach Puryear (06:18):
We really hadn't changed what our vision of
success is.
Each year, the goal is to tryto get the most out of what we
have on our team, that theyreally do the best job we can
really um, just taking advantageof all the you know, all the
talent that we have and doing itand doing the job there.
And if I think we do the jobthere, then that end result sort
of takes care of itself.
(06:38):
And so that has been themessage to them throughout.
It will be the same messageagain this year.
You know that we're going to goout, we're going to try to get
the best out of what we have,each and every match, each and
every practice, and and thensimply let those uh, let those
results take care, take care ofthemselves right right now along
those lines.
Karl (06:56):
I noticed that, uh, you know tennis.
I mean there's a couple youknow rugby might be another one
where they have a pretty lengthyfall season and then they take
a break and go into the spring.
Tennis is the same way whereyou have a lot of invitationals
that you play in the fall, youtake about a two month break and
then you come back and startyour head to head in the
wintertime.
Basically, you know they callit a spring sport but you
basically are starting inFebruary, but anyway, that's a
(07:20):
lot of time with the breaks andeverything.
Even you know injuries kind ofcrop up and stuff.
How do you keep the playersengaged?
What are some of the thingsthat you can do to kind of keep
them fresh, to avoid fallinginto?
You know ruts at differenttimes of the year.
Coach Puryear (07:33):
Yeah, yeah, well, I think you know part of it is
just the structure of theacademy.
That does help just a littlebit because during the summer
months everyone's going to do aminimum of two training blocks
during the summer.
That helps a lot because that'sa built-in sort of break for
(07:55):
them.
Where they're away from tennisAt some other schools, the
players they can go out and ifthey want to we call it grinding
if they want to go out and theywant to grind all summer long
playing tournaments, they can dothat.
Our players aren't going to bedoing that and so it's a nice
built in break for them oncethey do come back.
You know we go, we go, we startoff and we go pretty, you know,
pretty hard, as you said, andthe season's pretty long.
(08:16):
This year we'll start off inthe middle part of August and
then we'll go until November interms of just our in-season part
of the season, and thenoff-season we'll go from the
beginning of November throughthat first part of December.
So it is a pretty long fallseason and what we try to do is
(08:38):
we just try to work on thatprocess of periodization, where
you're going to work pretty hardearly on to develop your base
and then, once you have yourbase, then you're going to sort
of break it down.
You're going to break it down alittle bit more, where you're
looking at things strategicallyas opposed to technically, and
we tell them all the time thatany changes that we need to make
(09:00):
, any tweaks that we need tomake, you're going to need to
make those in the fall, becauseonce the spring rolls around, uh
, the matches that get going, itis fast and furious, and so
it's a little bit challengingeven in the fall to uh to make
those little changes because youstill are competing.
But you know, we always sayyou're going to make your
mistakes.
Make your mistakes in the fall,because once the spring rolls
(09:20):
around, you know that's when, uh, that's when when things really
matter.
And so I think, just sort oflooking at it that way, I think
it really helps the players, youknow, to understand that you're
not going to, you know you'regoing to make your gains in the
fall.
That's where you really want tomake your, you know, make any
changes or make your tweaks inthe fall.
And so I think that helps alittle bit and takes a little
bit of the pressure off of themwhere they feel like they have
(09:42):
to be perfect, so to speak.
That's where they can maketheir mistakes.
Karl (09:46):
Right, right.
So yeah, let's take a closerlook at how those invitationals
are set up.
That format is a littledifferent than when you have
match play in the spring rightit is.
I've noticed that you havethere's several flights and in
fact you could have two of yourplayers in the same flight.
You know that sort of thing.
So how does that structure helpyou do what you just mentioned
in terms of just kind oftweaking, uh, everything in the
(10:07):
fall to make sure you're readyto go in the spring?
Coach Puryear (10:09):
well, you do have some events that um will
sometimes be be one and done,but it's rare and but you get.
You get a lot of reps in thefall.
So, for instance, when we playour event, if you lose in the
first round, you go into theback draw so you have a chance
to continue to play and do itover again In the spring
semester.
You could play a singles matchon Saturday and, in win or lose,
(10:33):
you might not play anothersingles match until the next
week, and so that's where it canbecome just a little bit sort
of like the snowball.
If you feel like you'restruggling a little bit, the
snowball just keeps gettingbigger and bigger and bigger and
bigger.
Um, if you feel like you'restruggling, as opposed to in the
fall, you have a chance to sortof do it over again.
Um, you know now, if you losetwice in some matches I mean
(10:54):
some tournaments if, even if youlose twice, you just continue
to play, you just continue toplay and continue to play,
depending upon how thetournament is structured.
So you get a lot more reps inthe fall, and so that's your
opportunity.
If you don't get it right thefirst time, you normally will
have another match where you cango in and you can play.
You can now work on that whichyou did not do.
Uh, you felt you didn't do toowell.
You know the match before,sometimes even the same day, if
(11:17):
not the next day I see okay,yeah, that makes sense.
Karl (11:20):
All right, so now let's go ahead and jump to.
I've always been curious howyou would plan for like a dual
meet, okay.
So what I want to do is just,let's just let's just go back to
the.
As you were preparing for thesemifinal this year against Army
, right, you and your staff arekind of getting together and
you've just beaten Bucknell, Ibelieve.
Right, I mean, they were, yeah,that's right.
(11:41):
So you're planning for Army.
You've already taken them downonce during the star match.
There are known quantities, soto speak.
So how did you prepare yourplayers to go up against them?
Or was it simply a case of OK,we know what we need to do,
let's just go out there and doit.
Coach Puryear (11:56):
Well, it's always a little bit tricky because
with the dual match format youdon't find out exactly who's
going to play where until youexchange lineups an hour before
the match actually starts.
And so if you go that whole weekand you're assuming that you're
going to be playing this personand all of a sudden the lineup
comes out and they've changedand made some changes in their
(12:16):
lineup, it can be a little bitoffsetting, and so we really try
to focus a little bit more onour part.
We know generally how differentplayers will play or will
compete, their style of play,but we're really going to try to
focus on things on our endbecause we don't have total
control over what they're goingto do, and so we really just try
(12:37):
to take care of, you know, ourpart of the equation.
You know make sure thatmentally, you know we're
prepared, you know we'reprepared to go out to compete
and we're ready for thechallenge that that match is
going to bring.
Because anytime you playanother service academy,
particularly when it comes downto Army Navy, just the level of
play, the competitiveness, thegrit, the nerves, everything
(12:59):
else that people are going tofeel is going to be there, and
so it's important that, mentally, our players are able to sort
of understand what they're goingto need to do in order to fight
through some things, in orderto be successful.
Karl (13:13):
All right, yeah, yeah.
And, and, by the way, I'vewatched you know, whenever those
matches take place, I alwayswatch the video that Navy
athletics puts together, andspecifically the army one and
the Patriot league champion.
We'll talk about that in alittle bit, but anyway, those
were just really exciting towatch.
So now you've, you've, you'vebeaten army.
(13:35):
It was.
It was a tough one, but, butyou came through.
And but you came through andwon that one.
And you got to go againstBoston University, who has just
like been a thorn in your sidefor years, right?
Yes, really a top-notch program, yeah, so what did you feel?
That the team's strengths weregoing into that match?
Just keeping in mind the resultthat you had the last time, it
(13:57):
was probably some good lessonsyou took away from that one,
right?
Coach Puryear (14:01):
Yeah, when we played them in the regular
season, we played them up there,we played them indoors and it
was a fairly quick indoorfacility.
I thought we made some goodadjustments, but it was
something that was a little bitforeign to us in terms of just a
level of comfort Coming backhome knowing that we're going to
(14:22):
be coming home, we're going tobe playing, regardless of
whether we play indoors or out,you know we're playing in our
home base, someplace that wefeel comfortable.
That was going to add adifferent level to, you know, to
the finals match.
But I think the main thing was,all season long players did a
really, really exemplary job ofcoming prepared to play every
single match win or lose, itdidn't really matter whether we
(14:43):
won or we lost.
Uh, we showed up and as easy tosay but hard to do, right?
Uh, where every single playeryou know pretty much one through
six in singles, one throughthree and doubles, if they were
in there, um, they gave youeverything, gave us everything
we had.
We told them this before thematch that if we went out, and
we did that, regardless of whatthe scoreline was, we were okay
(15:06):
with it.
You might not believe me, but Itold them when we talked, if we
had lost that match and notthat I wanted to lose it, mind
you but if we had lost thatmatch, I would have been upset
more at myself, I would not havebeen upset with them, because
they gave us everything they had.
Kate lee, you know, she gave useverything, everything she had,
I mean every single player, sia, sia, chaudry, same thing,
(15:29):
everything she had.
Michaela chain I mean everybody, win or lose, they did that and
, uh, and I think that was thekey to our success in that match
, but that was also the key toour success that we had
throughout the season.
Karl (15:42):
Right, right, and taking the point a little bit further,
when we're talking about thatmatch against Boston University,
I mean there was a point therewhere things were looking pretty
tough.
I mean earlier, before KateLee's deciding match, michaela
Chang, I believe.
She lost the first set ratherquickly but just pulled it
(16:03):
together and just won the nexttwo in pretty short order.
So that got you the firstsingles point after having won
the doubles point already,keeping in mind that you need
four points total to win thematch.
Wait, wait, I don't thinkthat's right, no, no, michaela.
Coach Puryear (16:17):
Chang won hurts pretty easily yes, right, one is
straight sets.
Um, it was kate kate lee.
She lost.
Now, she won the first set.
They lost the second steppretty quickly and then sia, sia
lost the first set and it cameback and won the next two right,
right.
Karl (16:32):
So I guess what I'm getting at here is you got, uh
see, as a sophomore, kate's ajunior, but but certainly Kate's
got a little bit moreexperience and everything.
But my my thing is going backto the mental toughness piece.
You were talking about how muchthey just totally left it out
there and they came to play allthe time.
Uh, when we think about thingslike mental toughness and being
able to play quality tennisunder pressure, um, what are
(16:55):
some of the things that youdiscuss throughout the season
when it comes to that sort ofthing?
Coach Puryear (16:59):
Yeah, you know, I think we, you know we have some
certain things that we do withthem on court to help contribute
to that on, you know, on adaily basis.
I think it's just the focus andthe concentration that you
bring every single day that'sgoing to help you.
Is that sort of just doing itthe right way and trying to do
it the right way over and overand over again so that when
those pressure moments come, youknow you're not doing anything
(17:22):
other than what you've doneevery single day?
You know we have a great sportspsych person who works with our
team, dr Jessica Moeller, andshe comes in, you know, wherever
she can.
She's very, very busy.
She works with other teams aswell as, as well as with the
Baltimore Orioles.
She did some work with theBaltimore Orioles last year as
(17:44):
well, and she will come in andshe will also sort of talk to
the players.
But I think with us it's just amatter of keeping the doors
open, make sure that we'realways, you know, sort of just
conscious of the players, thepressures that they're feeling,
you know sort of just consciousof the players, the pressures
that they're feeling, and havethem have an outlet or means to
which express that.
You know, in order to, in orderto make those jumps they need
(18:07):
to make mentally, which willthen transpose to them what
they're doing on the courtphysically.
Karl (18:13):
OK, all right, very good, I'll tell you what.
We're going to go ahead andtake a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
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Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
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(18:34):
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I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
Thanks for staying with us hereon Navy Sports Central.
(19:12):
Karl Darden here with you, andtoday we are joined by Coach
Keith Puryear of the NavyWomen's Tennis Team, who earned
their first Patriot League titlethis past spring.
So, coach, let's go ahead andpick up where we left off, and
that was with Kate Lee's matchagainst her opponent from Boston
University, which would decidethe Patriot League championship.
And for our listeners out there, let me just go ahead and set
the table for you.
As coach said, kate won thefirst set and that was by a
(19:35):
score of 6-2.
Then she lost the second 6-1.
So now they head to a third setwhich winds up going to a
tiebreaker, right.
So now everything's on the line12 point tiebreaker.
First, one to seven by a marginof two, and you know they take
home all the marbles.
So before you know it, you knowKate's down five to one and
she's got her two service pointscoming up.
(19:57):
So what ended up happeningthere was, let's see, she won
her service point.
No, she won a point off theopponent serve to get her to
five two.
Then she wins both of herservice points to get to five
four, but then loses the nextpoint.
So now she's facing what we'retalking?
Three championship points thereand two, two, I guess.
And so what's going throughyour mind right there?
(20:17):
And then I'm going to ask youin a couple of minutes, you know
, after you give me this answer,I want to get a sense of your
range of emotions in about afive minute span, or however
long it took to get to you know.
Coach Puryear (20:28):
Yeah, well, I must add, though, she made a
couple of comebacks because shealso was down a break, you know,
in the third.
So she actually down for one umin the third set and then was
able to get it back to uh, whereshe was actually up five, four,
and then they went five all andthen six all and then the
tiebreaker, right, I think.
(20:50):
With me we had video, and sosometimes you can sort of see me
, if you ever see the videowhere I'm walking back and forth
and I'm talking to her.
I really tried to maintain,stay on even keel.
You know, I couldn't get too up, I couldn't get too down,
because you know she's going to,she's going to feel, you know,
(21:12):
right.
So so I just tried to try tostay there, and the thing I kept
telling her was the same thingI had to do Stay the course,
stay the course, stay the course.
You know, don't worry about thescoreline, because the
scoreline in tennis it's very,very, very deceptive.
She's down 5-1, but that's not ahuge.
You know, that's not a hugelead.
(21:32):
You know, it's just a couplepoints.
You know you play two or threegood points in a row.
It's just a couple points, youplay two or three good points in
a row, and that was the mainobjective was just to continue
to play good points.
Win or lose, just play a goodpoint.
And so when she got to thematch point, again that was her
goal.
It was just to try to play agood point and not worry so much
(21:56):
about the end result, becauseif she did that and she lost a
the point, then there's no moreshe could do.
She did her job, but you justwant to go out and just play the
point the way the point wassupposed to be played, and that
was the.
Karl (22:06):
That was always a message to her throughout the whole
match win or lose yeah, and Ithink the thing that was so
impressive was that, you know,she fought off two match points
and she won a couple more pointsto get to seven, six and then,
and then, on her firstopportunity to close out the
match, it happened.
So that was pretty fabulous.
So now you see the ball go longon the baseline.
(22:27):
You know, after that rally itgoes long.
And, by the way, props to her,because just in the short video
that I could see, she was justso controlled I couldn't tell if
she was winning or losing justby watching her expression, you
know.
But as soon as that ballbounced along, she just dropped
her racket and just exploded.
And so now tell me how you'refeeling, considering just the
(22:49):
history of the conferencetournaments.
Coach Puryear (22:52):
Yeah, to be honest, it took a while for it
to hit me, because I had tomaintain this, you to maintain
this pretty stoic demeanor allthroughout.
And again, if you watch thevideo initially, I'm sort of
just standing almost like in astate of shock.
And my associate head coach.
She's jumping around and shedoes a complete 360.
(23:13):
And then my assistant coachhe's got his arms up in the air.
Those guys, I mean immediately,they sort of reacted, but it
took me a little bit, I justwanted to sort of take it all in
.
So I took it all in.
And then the first person Iwent to look for was my wife,
and she knows the sacrificesthat have been made, that
(23:35):
we've've made, our family hasmade, in order to, uh, to make
this happen, in order to stayaround and do something that you
know I love to do, and so Ishared a moment with her.
And that's when, um, it really,really, really hit me and the
tears started coming because shewas crying, she was, she was,
in fact, she was.
She wasn't just crying, she wasbawling and uh.
And so we share a moment there.
(23:57):
And then, uh, the next personwas, uh, the athletic director
right right who came up and, um,he's just been so supportive.
I really felt like not soundingyou know cocky, but like we
really thought it would havehappened a lot sooner.
It took 16 years.
(24:17):
We've been there seven.
We'd been there seven timesbefore winning it.
He'd always been verysupportive and just always in
our corner he was the nextperson and then it was a team.
Karl (24:32):
Right.
Coach Puryear (24:35):
I talked to the two seniors because those guys,
we don't accomplish what we didthis year if it was not for them
.
Just the guidance and supportthey had given was just.
It was amazing.
Karl (24:47):
So let's talk about them a little bit.
Samantha Johns and StellaRoboto were the two seniors on
your team.
I noticed that you did.
The video did catch you talkingwith them right after you know,
during the course of thecelebration.
So tell us a little bit aboutthem.
What did they bring to the teamthat really helped them get
over the hump?
Coach Puryear (25:07):
Yeah, you know, with Sam Johns, she had had
surgery.
She had surgery about 12 months, 18 months or so, before the
tournament took place, and shebasically was still playing
maybe 80% 85%.
(25:29):
Her knees still would botherher, she would have to go in and
she would do treatment on it,and our sports medicine staff
did an unbelievable job.
Jim Barry did an unbelievablejob with her.
Some weeks after a weekend ofmatches, she might have to take
off Monday and Tuesday even inorder to sort of quell the
(25:50):
swelling or just to quell thepain just a little bit.
When you watch her play, though, you would never know it, and
she was a very, very, veryvisible example too.
Last year we had six freshmen,a very, very young team, and she
was a very visible example ofwhat it meant to be a member of
Navy Women's Tennis Right.
Everything that she did, itdidn't matter whether she was
(26:12):
losing, it didn't matter whethershe was winning, and she played
so many matches where she cameback after, after losing the
first set, three sets, and justgrinded out matches.
Um, so she was.
So that was the example thatshe set for them.
Um, stella Roboto as teamcaptain, I would say the senior
year did not go the way in whichshe wanted it to.
(26:34):
She dealt with some injuries,sort of started injury bug
started a little bit in the fallwhere she started having some
problem with her arm.
Initially she was playing.
She was slated to play anywherefrom two to four singles and
initially she was playing numberone doubles, and so she made it
(26:56):
through the fall.
But then in the spring, um, itlooked like you know things.
Things just sort of quelled butit started back up again and
initially again we had herplaying both singles and doubles
and then, uh, we limited howmuch she was going to play, so
we took her out of the doublesbecause she was having major
pain.
So it really didn't make senseto double it up.
Where we started doubling.
(27:17):
You know her workload when youknow the injury was, was really
coming to a head, and theneventually her role decreased a
little bit in singles as well,where you know she couldn't um,
she was having trouble even, youknow, holding the racket and it
would have been really easy forher to um, to really think what
(27:39):
was me and just think about howit was wrong, how, how, how bad
she felt about her ownsituation.
But she did the exact opposite.
Um, if she I know she did, wewe've had talks about it, um,
and I know she was very, veryupset, but she never showed it
and she always found a way tohelp the team.
At times it was as an assistantcoach, you know.
(28:00):
At other times it was as anassistant coach, at other times
it was as a mentor, at othertimes it was just somebody who
was a sounding board for thecoaching staff or letting us
know what was going on with theteam and the pulse of the team,
(28:22):
inspiring words of encouragementto her teammates.
But she, she did anything andeverything she could to be the
very best teammate that shecould be, you know, for for navy
women's tennis.
And I think both those guys andthat was a, that was what they
brought to the team and itreally showed them that we wear
on the back of our shirts, um, aphrase, not for self, yep, they
embody that um, and in some,and then in turn, it helped our,
(28:43):
our very young team, you know,begin to understand what it
actually meant to be a member ofthis team.
And so, if you look at some ofthe video footage, there are
times when the army match, forinstance, or bu match to see
their their very, very obviousjoy, um, for their teammate.
I mean that that's natural.
There's no, oh well, you knowit should have been me out there
(29:04):
and feeling disgruntled becausethey didn't get a chance to
play.
They were playing, were inevery single point, every single
match, whether they were on thecourt, whether they were off
the court.
You know, it was just a totalteam effort and I think a lot of
that came from our seniors andthe seniors learned it from the
captain before that, casey Acola, and then also we had three,
(29:25):
meghna Kamaraju and KatrinaCorpus and Casey Moore, who
showed those guys so sort ofpaying it forward and that was
their job.
That's what they did this year.
It was so very well Right.
Karl (29:39):
Well, I'll tell you what.
You mentioned the video acouple of times and I will tell
you that since that day in Apriland I think the video came out
a couple of days later I'vewatched that video at least 10
times, and I kid you not, and Iwas actually.
I put a link to it in my lastpodcast episode and I'm going to
do it again.
(30:00):
But I challenge any of mylisteners to watch that video
and if you don't get an eyeballthat leaks, you have no heart.
It was something you mentioned.
The joy that the players hadwhen that point went long and
just to watch them celebratethat was overpowering for me and
(30:20):
I was just so happy for them.
Yeah, yeah, agreed, okay, solast year is done.
You're welcoming a new teamthis year.
What?
What can we?
What can we look forward to interms of new players, things
like that.
Coach Puryear (30:34):
So this year, another really, really big plebe
class.
So we've got six, six, sixplebes that we're bringing in or
six freshmen, you know we'rebringing in, or six freshmen
that we're bringing in.
We lost Samantha Johns andStella Ribaudo.
Initiating the message will bethe same Our job is to really
get the most out of what we haveto offer each and every day.
We cannot live on the laurelsof that conference championship
(30:58):
which we won.
Now we've got the bullseyethat's right there on our chest
and everybody's coming for us,but we can't look to protect
that.
We've got to go out becauseit's a whole new year and last
year's year is last year andthis year we can use some of the
things that we experienced lastyear, that we learned last year
.
You know for our success thisyear, but we've got to earn it
(31:19):
all over again.
You know for our success thisyear, but we got to earn it all
over again.
You know and that's the job,you know the freshmen and
sophomores they have to.
They have to take thoseexperiences that they learn and
they have to use those as bestadvantage, because this year we
want to have some openings.
Losing Sam, losing Stella, wealso lost Sia Chaudry, so we
have some people that we have toreplace, and so people are
(31:41):
going we have to replace, and sopeople are going to have to
play different roles and they'regoing to be asked to play
different roles.
I think we've got a really goodsenior class now who were
second class last year.
You know it's Emily Tannenbaumand then Kate Lee and then
Sylvia Ecklund and then ParvathiShanker.
I mean, I think those guys aregoing to do a remarkable job of
helping to lead this team.
(32:01):
But we just have to take itjust like we did last year one
ball at a time, one practice ata time and keep looking to get
better with each and every thingthat we do.
Karl (32:11):
Right, right.
Well, certainly, with theplayers you just mentioned, that
definitely serves as a reallysolid foundation.
So I'll tell you what, coach.
Listen.
That looks like a pretty goodplace to stop.
I really appreciate youstopping by for a conversation
with me.
I could probably go on anotherhalf an hour because I'm such a
tennis junkie, but you gotthings to do.
So thanks again,congratulations on a terrific
(32:32):
year and I'm going to wish yourteam the best of success in the
upcoming spring, thank you.
Thank you, carl.
Thanks for having me.
It was my pleasure, coach, takecare.
All right, we are coming downthe home stretch.
Our question of the day is next.
So please stay with us.
(32:56):
We are back to wrap things upwith our question of the day.
So let's go ahead and check outthe responses from our last
episode.
Our question featured NavySenior Setter Avery Miller from
the volleyball team.
At the time of the Army-Navyvolleyball star match, Averi
Miller had a total of 2,700career assists.
(33:17):
She ended up finishing with2,748.
Where does that rank her alltime among Navy volleyball
players?
Is it A first, b second, c,third or D fourth?
So I took a look at theresponses and 50% of you figured
that number was enough to puther at the top and went with A,
and then there were 25% of youwho had her in second place and
(33:39):
chose B, and finally another 25%picked fourth, which was choice
D.
There wasn't anybody who pickedC, which was third place.
Now it turns out the correctanswer was B.
Averi Miller's 2,748 assists isgood for second place among
Navy volleyball players.
She started the year in fourthplace on the career list with
just over 1,800 and moved pastboth Ashley Musser and Marissa
(34:00):
Watson by the time the seasonwas over.
And, in case you're wondering,number one in career assists is
Patricia Mattingly from theclass of 2019.
She has 3,849, so it may be awhile before someone comes along
to challenge that number, and Ithink every Miller spot would
be pretty secure too, at leastfor a while, because right now
there aren't any players in thetop 10 for assists who are
currently on the team.
(34:20):
They've all graduated.
Okay, now let's get to thisweek's question.
During my conversation withCoach Puryear, he mentioned that
one advantage he believed theMids had going into the Patriot
League final against BostonUniversity was being on their
own home court.
Obviously, they were verycomfortable playing on that
surface and, of course, therewas the fan support as well, so
that got me thinking about thisquestion what is the longest
(34:43):
home match winning streak forthe Navy women's tennis team in
dual meets?
Is it A 11, b 17, c 20, or D 23?
Take some time to think aboutthat one and you can get back to
me with your answer.
And you can do that in twodifferent ways.
First, you can send me amessage by clicking on the
button at the top of the shownotes that says send us a text
(35:05):
message.
This is a pretty new featureand it's just another way for me
to connect with you guys.
So anyone who sends me ananswer using that text message
button gets a shout out on thenext show.
The other way to respond isthrough the poll question on the
Navy Sports Nation groupFacebook page and I'll go ahead
and get that up by the end ofthe day.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
(35:27):
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts, and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankNavy Women's Tennis Coach Keith
Puryear for sharing his thoughtswith us today, and
congratulations again toeveryone connected with that
program on their historicchampionship season.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
(35:48):
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
You can also respond by sendingus a text.
All you need to do is click onthe link in the show notes.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
(36:09):
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy, beat Army.
Hi everybody.
My name is Karl Darden and I'dlike to welcome and thank all of
you for joining us today onNavy Sports Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
We are getting close to thestart of another college
football season.
The Mids will be reporting tocamp on July 31st, with the
first game against Bucknellcoming up just a month later.
(00:34):
So things should start fallinginto place over the next several
weeks and you'll definitelywant to be here for our deep
dive segment.
Our guests will be Navy women'stennis coach Keith Puryear, who
led the Mids to their firstPatriot League Championship this
past April.
(00:54):
All of that, plus our questionof the day, is coming up, so
please stay with us.
All right, it is great to haveyou back for another episode of
Navy Sports Central.
Whether you are a regularlistener or this is your first
visit, thanks for taking thetime.
There's not a ton of stuff goingon in the yard right now,
(01:16):
except for the class of 2028arriving for Plebe Summer about
a month ago.
Among them were 69 footballplayers.
Seven of them were listed asquarterbacks and, if you're
curious about the position orpositions that brought in the
highest number of recruits.
That would be the offensiveline with 11.
And next up were the safetieson defense, with six recruits
there.
But the one guy that got myattention was a fellow named
(01:37):
Wayne Pritz.
He is from Argyle, texas, whichis about 30 miles north of Fort
Worth.
Pritz is a tight end who islisted at 6'7", 235 pounds.
That makes him the tallest guyon the team, and since we know
that coach Drew Kronick's newoffense is looking to use tight
ends more, pritz could make agood target if he's able to pick
up the offense good enough toget on the field his first year.
By the way, I'm not sure if Imentioned it before, but the
(02:00):
captains this season arefullback Daba Fofana and
linebacker Colin Ramos.
Fofana has rushed for over1,100 yards in his career so far
, while averaging a solid fouryards per carry.
Ramos led the team in tackleslast season with 110, while
racking up nearly 200 during hisfirst three years at linebacker
.
So both of these guys are solidchoices based on their
accomplishments, and I'm lookingforward to seeing the kind of
(02:26):
impact they're going to havethis year.
Besides that, there's not muchelse happening around the yard,
about.
The only other thing thatgrabbed my attention this past
week was the hiring of SteveGladstone to become the coach of
the heavyweight rowing team.
He takes over for Rob Friedrich, who moved over to an in-house
position with Navy Athletics.
The interesting thing is thatGladstone had retired from Yale
after a long and stellar careerat five different universities.
He also won 14 IRAchampionships along the way, and
(02:48):
that ties him for the most inthe history of the sport.
Gladstone's biography alsostated that he once coached the
US national team and he was aselector for the 1972 Olympic
team.
I mean, clearly this guy is alegend.
He's been involved with thesport for over 50 years, which
only had me wondering what elsedoes he have left to prove?
So I reached out to myclassmate, scott Gordon, who was
(03:08):
a member of the heavyweightrowing team when we were at
Annapolis, and he had a prettyinteresting take that really
made a lot of sense to me once Ithought about it.
It turns out that CoachGladstone brought an assistant
with him, named Matt Fleur.
Fleur is actually a 2012graduate of the Naval Academy
who's been at Yale for the lasttwo years, and he was also an
assistant coach with the midsfor a few years before that.
Anyway, gordy told me that onepossible strategy was to have
(03:31):
Coach Gladstone lay thegroundwork for a few years and
then turn things over to Fleur,and I can definitely see that
happening.
Fleur is basically in his early30s, so you know, thinking
about that scenario, he could bein place for quite a long time
at Navy.
Thinking about that scenario,he could be in place for quite a
long time at Navy.
Okay, that pretty much does itfor this update.
Our deep dive segment is comingup next, so please stick with us
(03:52):
as Coach Keith Puryear takes usthrough.
The has spanned over threedecades.
Prior to arriving in Annapolisin 2008, he coached at the
(04:15):
University of Maryland,baltimore County.
For 19 seasons.
Puryear has been the only coachthe Navy Women's Tennis Program
has ever known.
It was a club sport when hefirst took over, and a year
after that they began competingat the varsity level.
Going into his 16th season asthe head coach of the women's
tennis team, puryear has rackedup a very impressive 194 wins,
while going 51-13 in conferenceplay.
(04:36):
His teams have always competedhard, both in and out of the
Patriot League, year in and yearout, and this season in
particular turned out to betruly historic.
So I'm extremely pleased tohave Coach Keith Puryear join us
today to talk about the MIDSchampionship season, including
that exciting Patriot Leaguefinal against Boston University.
Coach Puryear, it is so greatto have you here on Navy Sports
Central.
(04:56):
Thanks for taking the time.
Coach Puryear (04:58):
Yep.
Thanks for having me, Carl.
Karl (05:00):
All right, let's go ahead and get right into it.
I think that one of the thingsI wanted to go kind of set the
stage for the whole discussionis to go back to the very
beginning of the year.
So last fall you've welcomedyour team back, You've got a
couple of seniors plus a gooddistribution of you know,
freshmen, sophomores and juniors.
What I'm curious about is howtypical a breakdown across all
(05:23):
the classes is that, and by thatI mean just having two seniors.
Is that a bit of an anomaly, ordoes it happen more often than
some people might think?
Coach Puryear (05:31):
It's fluctuated a little bit since we've been to
the academy.
We were supposed to have three,but we had one young lady who
chose not to play that year.
So we did have three for mostof the time which those guys
were there, but sometimes abreakdown.
It varies from year to year.
We've had years of just a yearbefore we only have one, one
first class or one senior.
Karl (05:52):
Okay.
Coach Puryear (05:53):
The year before that we had three.
So it is.
It has fluctuated a little bit.
It has been rare for us to havefour seniors.
It's normally been somewherebetween two, two to three.
Karl (06:04):
Got it, got it Okay.
So you welcomed them back.
You're coming off a year whereyou got to the semifinals in the
Patriot League Championshipsthe previous year.
What was your vision forsuccess for this year's team,
and how did you communicate thatto your players?
Coach Puryear (06:18):
We really hadn't changed what our vision of
success is.
Each year, the goal is to tryto get the most out of what we
have on our team, that theyreally do the best job we can
really um, just taking advantageof all the you know, all the
talent that we have and doing itand doing the job there.
And if I think we do the jobthere, then that end result sort
of takes care of itself.
(06:38):
And so that has been themessage to them throughout.
It will be the same messageagain this year.
You know that we're going to goout, we're going to try to get
the best out of what we have,each and every match, each and
every practice, and and thensimply let those uh, let those
results take care, take care ofthemselves right right now along
those lines.
Karl (06:56):
I noticed that, uh, you know tennis.
I mean there's a couple youknow rugby might be another one
where they have a pretty lengthyfall season and then they take
a break and go into the spring.
Tennis is the same way whereyou have a lot of invitationals
that you play in the fall, youtake about a two month break and
then you come back and startyour head to head in the
wintertime.
Basically, you know they callit a spring sport but you
basically are starting inFebruary, but anyway, that's a
(07:20):
lot of time with the breaks andeverything.
Even you know injuries kind ofcrop up and stuff.
How do you keep the playersengaged?
What are some of the thingsthat you can do to kind of keep
them fresh, to avoid fallinginto?
You know ruts at differenttimes of the year.
Coach Puryear (07:33):
Yeah, yeah, well, I think you know part of it is
just the structure of theacademy.
That does help just a littlebit because during the summer
months everyone's going to do aminimum of two training blocks
during the summer.
That helps a lot because that'sa built-in sort of break for
(07:55):
them.
Where they're away from tennisAt some other schools, the
players they can go out and ifthey want to we call it grinding
if they want to go out and theywant to grind all summer long
playing tournaments, they can dothat.
Our players aren't going to bedoing that and so it's a nice
built in break for them oncethey do come back.
You know we go, we go, we startoff and we go pretty, you know,
pretty hard, as you said, andthe season's pretty long.
(08:16):
This year we'll start off inthe middle part of August and
then we'll go until November interms of just our in-season part
of the season, and thenoff-season we'll go from the
beginning of November throughthat first part of December.
So it is a pretty long fallseason and what we try to do is
(08:38):
we just try to work on thatprocess of periodization, where
you're going to work pretty hardearly on to develop your base
and then, once you have yourbase, then you're going to sort
of break it down.
You're going to break it down alittle bit more, where you're
looking at things strategicallyas opposed to technically, and
we tell them all the time thatany changes that we need to make
(09:00):
, any tweaks that we need tomake, you're going to need to
make those in the fall, becauseonce the spring rolls around, uh
, the matches that get going, itis fast and furious, and so
it's a little bit challengingeven in the fall to uh to make
those little changes because youstill are competing.
But you know, we always sayyou're going to make your
mistakes.
Make your mistakes in the fall,because once the spring rolls
(09:20):
around, you know that's when, uh, that's when when things really
matter.
And so I think, just sort oflooking at it that way, I think
it really helps the players, youknow, to understand that you're
not going to, you know you'regoing to make your gains in the
fall.
That's where you really want tomake your, you know, make any
changes or make your tweaks inthe fall.
And so I think that helps alittle bit and takes a little
bit of the pressure off of themwhere they feel like they have
(09:42):
to be perfect, so to speak.
That's where they can maketheir mistakes.
Karl (09:46):
Right, right.
So yeah, let's take a closerlook at how those invitationals
are set up.
That format is a littledifferent than when you have
match play in the spring rightit is.
I've noticed that you havethere's several flights and in
fact you could have two of yourplayers in the same flight.
You know that sort of thing.
So how does that structure helpyou do what you just mentioned
in terms of just kind oftweaking, uh, everything in the
(10:07):
fall to make sure you're readyto go in the spring?
Coach Puryear (10:09):
well, you do have some events that um will
sometimes be be one and done,but it's rare and but you get.
You get a lot of reps in thefall.
So, for instance, when we playour event, if you lose in the
first round, you go into theback draw so you have a chance
to continue to play and do itover again In the spring
semester.
You could play a singles matchon Saturday and, in win or lose,
(10:33):
you might not play anothersingles match until the next
week, and so that's where it canbecome just a little bit sort
of like the snowball.
If you feel like you'restruggling a little bit, the
snowball just keeps gettingbigger and bigger and bigger and
bigger.
Um, if you feel like you'restruggling, as opposed to in the
fall, you have a chance to sortof do it over again.
Um, you know now, if you losetwice in some matches I mean
(10:54):
some tournaments if, even if youlose twice, you just continue
to play, you just continue toplay and continue to play,
depending upon how thetournament is structured.
So you get a lot more reps inthe fall, and so that's your
opportunity.
If you don't get it right thefirst time, you normally will
have another match where you cango in and you can play.
You can now work on that whichyou did not do.
Uh, you felt you didn't do toowell.
You know the match before,sometimes even the same day, if
(11:17):
not the next day I see okay,yeah, that makes sense.
Karl (11:20):
All right, so now let's go ahead and jump to.
I've always been curious howyou would plan for like a dual
meet, okay.
So what I want to do is just,let's just let's just go back to
the.
As you were preparing for thesemifinal this year against Army
, right, you and your staff arekind of getting together and
you've just beaten Bucknell, Ibelieve.
Right, I mean, they were, yeah,that's right.
(11:41):
So you're planning for Army.
You've already taken them downonce during the star match.
There are known quantities, soto speak.
So how did you prepare yourplayers to go up against them?
Or was it simply a case of OK,we know what we need to do,
let's just go out there and doit.
Coach Puryear (11:56):
Well, it's always a little bit tricky because
with the dual match format youdon't find out exactly who's
going to play where until youexchange lineups an hour before
the match actually starts.
And so if you go that whole weekand you're assuming that you're
going to be playing this personand all of a sudden the lineup
comes out and they've changedand made some changes in their
(12:16):
lineup, it can be a little bitoffsetting, and so we really try
to focus a little bit more onour part.
We know generally how differentplayers will play or will
compete, their style of play,but we're really going to try to
focus on things on our endbecause we don't have total
control over what they're goingto do, and so we really just try
(12:37):
to take care of, you know, ourpart of the equation.
You know make sure thatmentally, you know we're
prepared, you know we'reprepared to go out to compete
and we're ready for thechallenge that that match is
going to bring.
Because anytime you playanother service academy,
particularly when it comes downto Army Navy, just the level of
play, the competitiveness, thegrit, the nerves, everything
(12:59):
else that people are going tofeel is going to be there, and
so it's important that, mentally, our players are able to sort
of understand what they're goingto need to do in order to fight
through some things, in orderto be successful.
Karl (13:13):
All right, yeah, yeah.
And, and, by the way, I'vewatched you know, whenever those
matches take place, I alwayswatch the video that Navy
athletics puts together, andspecifically the army one and
the Patriot league champion.
We'll talk about that in alittle bit, but anyway, those
were just really exciting towatch.
So now you've, you've, you'vebeaten army.
(13:35):
It was.
It was a tough one, but, butyou came through.
And but you came through andwon that one.
And you got to go againstBoston University, who has just
like been a thorn in your sidefor years, right?
Yes, really a top-notch program, yeah, so what did you feel?
That the team's strengths weregoing into that match?
Just keeping in mind the resultthat you had the last time, it
(13:57):
was probably some good lessonsyou took away from that one,
right?
Coach Puryear (14:01):
Yeah, when we played them in the regular
season, we played them up there,we played them indoors and it
was a fairly quick indoorfacility.
I thought we made some goodadjustments, but it was
something that was a little bitforeign to us in terms of just a
level of comfort Coming backhome knowing that we're going to
(14:22):
be coming home, we're going tobe playing, regardless of
whether we play indoors or out,you know we're playing in our
home base, someplace that wefeel comfortable.
That was going to add adifferent level to, you know, to
the finals match.
But I think the main thing was,all season long players did a
really, really exemplary job ofcoming prepared to play every
single match win or lose, itdidn't really matter whether we
(14:43):
won or we lost.
Uh, we showed up and as easy tosay but hard to do, right?
Uh, where every single playeryou know pretty much one through
six in singles, one throughthree and doubles, if they were
in there, um, they gave youeverything, gave us everything
we had.
We told them this before thematch that if we went out, and
we did that, regardless of whatthe scoreline was, we were okay
(15:06):
with it.
You might not believe me, but Itold them when we talked, if we
had lost that match and notthat I wanted to lose it, mind
you but if we had lost thatmatch, I would have been upset
more at myself, I would not havebeen upset with them, because
they gave us everything they had.
Kate lee, you know, she gave useverything, everything she had,
I mean every single player, sia, sia, chaudry, same thing,
(15:29):
everything she had.
Michaela chain I mean everybody, win or lose, they did that and
, uh, and I think that was thekey to our success in that match
, but that was also the key toour success that we had
throughout the season.
Karl (15:42):
Right, right, and taking the point a little bit further,
when we're talking about thatmatch against Boston University,
I mean there was a point therewhere things were looking pretty
tough.
I mean earlier, before KateLee's deciding match, michaela
Chang, I believe.
She lost the first set ratherquickly but just pulled it
(16:03):
together and just won the nexttwo in pretty short order.
So that got you the firstsingles point after having won
the doubles point already,keeping in mind that you need
four points total to win thematch.
Wait, wait, I don't thinkthat's right, no, no, michaela.
Coach Puryear (16:17):
Chang won hurts pretty easily yes, right, one is
straight sets.
Um, it was kate kate lee.
She lost.
Now, she won the first set.
They lost the second steppretty quickly and then sia, sia
lost the first set and it cameback and won the next two right,
right.
Karl (16:32):
So I guess what I'm getting at here is you got, uh
see, as a sophomore, kate's ajunior, but but certainly Kate's
got a little bit moreexperience and everything.
But my my thing is going backto the mental toughness piece.
You were talking about how muchthey just totally left it out
there and they came to play allthe time.
Uh, when we think about thingslike mental toughness and being
able to play quality tennisunder pressure, um, what are
(16:55):
some of the things that youdiscuss throughout the season
when it comes to that sort ofthing?
Coach Puryear (16:59):
Yeah, you know, I think we, you know we have some
certain things that we do withthem on court to help contribute
to that on, you know, on adaily basis.
I think it's just the focus andthe concentration that you
bring every single day that'sgoing to help you.
Is that sort of just doing itthe right way and trying to do
it the right way over and overand over again so that when
those pressure moments come, youknow you're not doing anything
(17:22):
other than what you've doneevery single day?
You know we have a great sportspsych person who works with our
team, dr Jessica Moeller, andshe comes in, you know, wherever
she can.
She's very, very busy.
She works with other teams aswell as, as well as with the
Baltimore Orioles.
She did some work with theBaltimore Orioles last year as
(17:44):
well, and she will come in andshe will also sort of talk to
the players.
But I think with us it's just amatter of keeping the doors
open, make sure that we'realways, you know, sort of just
conscious of the players, thepressures that they're feeling,
you know sort of just consciousof the players, the pressures
that they're feeling, and havethem have an outlet or means to
which express that.
You know, in order to, in orderto make those jumps they need
(18:07):
to make mentally, which willthen transpose to them what
they're doing on the courtphysically.
Karl (18:13):
OK, all right, very good, I'll tell you what.
We're going to go ahead andtake a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
to stay up to date on Navysports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
(18:34):
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't
matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
Thanks for staying with us hereon Navy Sports Central.
(19:12):
Karl Darden here with you, andtoday we are joined by Coach
Keith Puryear of the NavyWomen's Tennis Team, who earned
their first Patriot League titlethis past spring.
So, coach, let's go ahead andpick up where we left off, and
that was with Kate Lee's matchagainst her opponent from Boston
University, which would decidethe Patriot League championship.
And for our listeners out there, let me just go ahead and set
the table for you.
As coach said, kate won thefirst set and that was by a
(19:35):
score of 6-2.
Then she lost the second 6-1.
So now they head to a third setwhich winds up going to a
tiebreaker, right.
So now everything's on the line12 point tiebreaker.
First, one to seven by a marginof two, and you know they take
home all the marbles.
So before you know it, you knowKate's down five to one and
she's got her two service pointscoming up.
(19:57):
So what ended up happeningthere was, let's see, she won
her service point.
No, she won a point off theopponent serve to get her to
five two.
Then she wins both of herservice points to get to five
four, but then loses the nextpoint.
So now she's facing what we'retalking?
Three championship points thereand two, two, I guess.
And so what's going throughyour mind right there?
(20:17):
And then I'm going to ask youin a couple of minutes, you know
, after you give me this answer,I want to get a sense of your
range of emotions in about afive minute span, or however
long it took to get to you know.
Coach Puryear (20:28):
Yeah, well, I must add, though, she made a
couple of comebacks because shealso was down a break, you know,
in the third.
So she actually down for one umin the third set and then was
able to get it back to uh, whereshe was actually up five, four,
and then they went five all andthen six all and then the
tiebreaker, right, I think.
(20:50):
With me we had video, and sosometimes you can sort of see me
, if you ever see the videowhere I'm walking back and forth
and I'm talking to her.
I really tried to maintain,stay on even keel.
You know, I couldn't get too up, I couldn't get too down,
because you know she's going to,she's going to feel, you know,
(21:12):
right.
So so I just tried to try tostay there, and the thing I kept
telling her was the same thingI had to do Stay the course,
stay the course, stay the course.
You know, don't worry about thescoreline, because the
scoreline in tennis it's very,very, very deceptive.
She's down 5-1, but that's not ahuge.
You know, that's not a hugelead.
(21:32):
You know, it's just a couplepoints.
You know you play two or threegood points in a row.
It's just a couple points, youplay two or three good points in
a row, and that was the mainobjective was just to continue
to play good points.
Win or lose, just play a goodpoint.
And so when she got to thematch point, again that was her
goal.
It was just to try to play agood point and not worry so much
(21:56):
about the end result, becauseif she did that and she lost a
the point, then there's no moreshe could do.
She did her job, but you justwant to go out and just play the
point the way the point wassupposed to be played, and that
was the.
Karl (22:06):
That was always a message to her throughout the whole
match win or lose yeah, and Ithink the thing that was so
impressive was that, you know,she fought off two match points
and she won a couple more pointsto get to seven, six and then,
and then, on her firstopportunity to close out the
match, it happened.
So that was pretty fabulous.
So now you see the ball go longon the baseline.
(22:27):
You know, after that rally itgoes long.
And, by the way, props to her,because just in the short video
that I could see, she was justso controlled I couldn't tell if
she was winning or losing justby watching her expression, you
know.
But as soon as that ballbounced along, she just dropped
her racket and just exploded.
And so now tell me how you'refeeling, considering just the
(22:49):
history of the conferencetournaments.
Coach Puryear (22:52):
Yeah, to be honest, it took a while for it
to hit me, because I had tomaintain this, you to maintain
this pretty stoic demeanor allthroughout.
And again, if you watch thevideo initially, I'm sort of
just standing almost like in astate of shock.
And my associate head coach.
She's jumping around and shedoes a complete 360.
(23:13):
And then my assistant coachhe's got his arms up in the air.
Those guys, I mean immediately,they sort of reacted, but it
took me a little bit, I justwanted to sort of take it all in
.
So I took it all in.
And then the first person Iwent to look for was my wife,
and she knows the sacrificesthat have been made, that
(23:35):
we've've made, our family hasmade, in order to, uh, to make
this happen, in order to stayaround and do something that you
know I love to do, and so Ishared a moment with her.
And that's when, um, it really,really, really hit me and the
tears started coming because shewas crying, she was, she was,
in fact, she was.
She wasn't just crying, she wasbawling and uh.
And so we share a moment there.
(23:57):
And then, uh, the next personwas, uh, the athletic director
right right who came up and, um,he's just been so supportive.
I really felt like not soundingyou know cocky, but like we
really thought it would havehappened a lot sooner.
It took 16 years.
(24:17):
We've been there seven.
We'd been there seven timesbefore winning it.
He'd always been verysupportive and just always in
our corner he was the nextperson and then it was a team.
Karl (24:32):
Right.
Coach Puryear (24:35):
I talked to the two seniors because those guys,
we don't accomplish what we didthis year if it was not for them
.
Just the guidance and supportthey had given was just.
It was amazing.
Karl (24:47):
So let's talk about them a little bit.
Samantha Johns and StellaRoboto were the two seniors on
your team.
I noticed that you did.
The video did catch you talkingwith them right after you know,
during the course of thecelebration.
So tell us a little bit aboutthem.
What did they bring to the teamthat really helped them get
over the hump?
Coach Puryear (25:07):
Yeah, you know, with Sam Johns, she had had
surgery.
She had surgery about 12 months, 18 months or so, before the
tournament took place, and shebasically was still playing
maybe 80% 85%.
(25:29):
Her knees still would botherher, she would have to go in and
she would do treatment on it,and our sports medicine staff
did an unbelievable job.
Jim Barry did an unbelievablejob with her.
Some weeks after a weekend ofmatches, she might have to take
off Monday and Tuesday even inorder to sort of quell the
(25:50):
swelling or just to quell thepain just a little bit.
When you watch her play, though, you would never know it, and
she was a very, very, veryvisible example too.
Last year we had six freshmen,a very, very young team, and she
was a very visible example ofwhat it meant to be a member of
Navy Women's Tennis Right.
Everything that she did, itdidn't matter whether she was
(26:12):
losing, it didn't matter whethershe was winning, and she played
so many matches where she cameback after, after losing the
first set, three sets, and justgrinded out matches.
Um, so she was.
So that was the example thatshe set for them.
Um, stella Roboto as teamcaptain, I would say the senior
year did not go the way in whichshe wanted it to.
(26:34):
She dealt with some injuries,sort of started injury bug
started a little bit in the fallwhere she started having some
problem with her arm.
Initially she was playing.
She was slated to play anywherefrom two to four singles and
initially she was playing numberone doubles, and so she made it
(26:56):
through the fall.
But then in the spring, um, itlooked like you know things.
Things just sort of quelled butit started back up again and
initially again we had herplaying both singles and doubles
and then, uh, we limited howmuch she was going to play, so
we took her out of the doublesbecause she was having major
pain.
So it really didn't make senseto double it up.
Where we started doubling.
(27:17):
You know her workload when youknow the injury was, was really
coming to a head, and theneventually her role decreased a
little bit in singles as well,where you know she couldn't um,
she was having trouble even, youknow, holding the racket and it
would have been really easy forher to um, to really think what
(27:39):
was me and just think about howit was wrong, how, how, how bad
she felt about her ownsituation.
But she did the exact opposite.
Um, if she I know she did, wewe've had talks about it, um,
and I know she was very, veryupset, but she never showed it
and she always found a way tohelp the team.
At times it was as an assistantcoach, you know.
(28:00):
At other times it was as anassistant coach, at other times
it was as a mentor, at othertimes it was just somebody who
was a sounding board for thecoaching staff or letting us
know what was going on with theteam and the pulse of the team,
(28:22):
inspiring words of encouragementto her teammates.
But she, she did anything andeverything she could to be the
very best teammate that shecould be, you know, for for navy
women's tennis.
And I think both those guys andthat was a, that was what they
brought to the team and itreally showed them that we wear
on the back of our shirts, um, aphrase, not for self, yep, they
embody that um, and in some,and then in turn, it helped our,
(28:43):
our very young team, you know,begin to understand what it
actually meant to be a member ofthis team.
And so, if you look at some ofthe video footage, there are
times when the army match, forinstance, or bu match to see
their their very, very obviousjoy, um, for their teammate.
I mean that that's natural.
There's no, oh well, you knowit should have been me out there
(29:04):
and feeling disgruntled becausethey didn't get a chance to
play.
They were playing, were inevery single point, every single
match, whether they were on thecourt, whether they were off
the court.
You know, it was just a totalteam effort and I think a lot of
that came from our seniors andthe seniors learned it from the
captain before that, casey Acola, and then also we had three,
(29:25):
meghna Kamaraju and KatrinaCorpus and Casey Moore, who
showed those guys so sort ofpaying it forward and that was
their job.
That's what they did this year.
It was so very well Right.
Karl (29:39):
Well, I'll tell you what.
You mentioned the video acouple of times and I will tell
you that since that day in Apriland I think the video came out
a couple of days later I'vewatched that video at least 10
times, and I kid you not, and Iwas actually.
I put a link to it in my lastpodcast episode and I'm going to
do it again.
(30:00):
But I challenge any of mylisteners to watch that video
and if you don't get an eyeballthat leaks, you have no heart.
It was something you mentioned.
The joy that the players hadwhen that point went long and
just to watch them celebratethat was overpowering for me and
(30:20):
I was just so happy for them.
Yeah, yeah, agreed, okay, solast year is done.
You're welcoming a new teamthis year.
What?
What can we?
What can we look forward to interms of new players, things
like that.
Coach Puryear (30:34):
So this year, another really, really big plebe
class.
So we've got six, six, sixplebes that we're bringing in or
six freshmen, you know we'rebringing in, or six freshmen
that we're bringing in.
We lost Samantha Johns andStella Ribaudo.
Initiating the message will bethe same Our job is to really
get the most out of what we haveto offer each and every day.
We cannot live on the laurelsof that conference championship
(30:58):
which we won.
Now we've got the bullseyethat's right there on our chest
and everybody's coming for us,but we can't look to protect
that.
We've got to go out becauseit's a whole new year and last
year's year is last year andthis year we can use some of the
things that we experienced lastyear, that we learned last year
.
You know for our success thisyear, but we've got to earn it
(31:19):
all over again.
You know for our success thisyear, but we got to earn it all
over again.
You know and that's the job,you know the freshmen and
sophomores they have to.
They have to take thoseexperiences that they learn and
they have to use those as bestadvantage, because this year we
want to have some openings.
Losing Sam, losing Stella, wealso lost Sia Chaudry, so we
have some people that we have toreplace, and so people are
(31:41):
going we have to replace, and sopeople are going to have to
play different roles and they'regoing to be asked to play
different roles.
I think we've got a really goodsenior class now who were
second class last year.
You know it's Emily Tannenbaumand then Kate Lee and then
Sylvia Ecklund and then ParvathiShanker.
I mean, I think those guys aregoing to do a remarkable job of
helping to lead this team.
(32:01):
But we just have to take itjust like we did last year one
ball at a time, one practice ata time and keep looking to get
better with each and every thingthat we do.
Karl (32:11):
Right, right.
Well, certainly, with theplayers you just mentioned, that
definitely serves as a reallysolid foundation.
So I'll tell you what, coach.
Listen.
That looks like a pretty goodplace to stop.
I really appreciate youstopping by for a conversation
with me.
I could probably go on anotherhalf an hour because I'm such a
tennis junkie, but you gotthings to do.
So thanks again,congratulations on a terrific
(32:32):
year and I'm going to wish yourteam the best of success in the
upcoming spring, thank you.
Thank you, carl.
Thanks for having me.
It was my pleasure, coach, takecare.
All right, we are coming downthe home stretch.
Our question of the day is next.
So please stay with us.
(32:56):
We are back to wrap things upwith our question of the day.
So let's go ahead and check outthe responses from our last
episode.
Our question featured NavySenior Setter Avery Miller from
the volleyball team.
At the time of the Army-Navyvolleyball star match, Averi
Miller had a total of 2,700career assists.
(33:17):
She ended up finishing with2,748.
Where does that rank her alltime among Navy volleyball
players?
Is it A first, b second, c,third or D fourth?
So I took a look at theresponses and 50% of you figured
that number was enough to puther at the top and went with A,
and then there were 25% of youwho had her in second place and
(33:39):
chose B, and finally another 25%picked fourth, which was choice
D.
There wasn't anybody who pickedC, which was third place.
Now it turns out the correctanswer was B.
Averi Miller's 2,748 assists isgood for second place among
Navy volleyball players.
She started the year in fourthplace on the career list with
just over 1,800 and moved pastboth Ashley Musser and Marissa
(34:00):
Watson by the time the seasonwas over.
And, in case you're wondering,number one in career assists is
Patricia Mattingly from theclass of 2019.
She has 3,849, so it may be awhile before someone comes along
to challenge that number, and Ithink every Miller spot would
be pretty secure too, at leastfor a while, because right now
there aren't any players in thetop 10 for assists who are
currently on the team.
(34:20):
They've all graduated.
Okay, now let's get to thisweek's question.
During my conversation withCoach Puryear, he mentioned that
one advantage he believed theMids had going into the Patriot
League final against BostonUniversity was being on their
own home court.
Obviously, they were verycomfortable playing on that
surface and, of course, therewas the fan support as well, so
that got me thinking about thisquestion what is the longest
(34:43):
home match winning streak forthe Navy women's tennis team in
dual meets?
Is it A 11, b 17, c 20, or D 23?
Take some time to think aboutthat one and you can get back to
me with your answer.
And you can do that in twodifferent ways.
First, you can send me amessage by clicking on the
button at the top of the shownotes that says send us a text
(35:05):
message.
This is a pretty new featureand it's just another way for me
to connect with you guys.
So anyone who sends me ananswer using that text message
button gets a shout out on thenext show.
The other way to respond isthrough the poll question on the
Navy Sports Nation groupFacebook page and I'll go ahead
and get that up by the end ofthe day.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
(35:27):
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts, and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankNavy Women's Tennis Coach Keith
Puryear for sharing his thoughtswith us today, and
congratulations again toeveryone connected with that
program on their historicchampionship season.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
(35:48):
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
You can also respond by sendingus a text.
All you need to do is click onthe link in the show notes.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
(36:09):
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy, beat Army.
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