MIKE LUCAS Senior Writer Related Content Varsity Magazine

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

NCAA Singles Championship Bracket

MADISON, Wis. — Although running stadium steps was a foreign training concept to Lauren Chypyha, a Canadian-bred tennis player out of Toronto, she was intrigued by the cross-training element to such a practice and wanted to check it out for herself, step by step, at Camp Randall Stadium.

"I actually ran them by myself the first time, it wasn't with the team," Chypyha recalled of her freshman orientation. "It was something that I had heard other teams (on campus) had done. So I was thinking, 'I'm going to try doing this; I'm going to challenge myself in a different way.'

"But I didn't really know how people ran them. How does it work? Do you go all the way to the top? So I just went out there and started with one flight (of steps), got to the top, jogged to the bottom and went around the entire stadium.

"It's a different kind of workout – to be honest. The one thing I hadn't experienced before was the shaking in my legs after each flight. I thought this was weird because you don't get that feeling when you're running sprints or just running around the track."

During her recent commencement address to fellow Badger student-athletes at the UW Field House, the 21-year-old Chypyha was very descriptive in her references to the stadium training noting "the pain in your legs and the burning in your lungs as you run up those 2,000 steps."

Most of the graduates in her audience could relate to that feeling.

"I remember looking up that last flight of stairs with my legs trembling – when you've run up 20 million flights by that time – and the piercing in my lungs from the cold October air," she recounted of her final fall workout. "I really didn't know how much I had left in me."

But she kept pushing herself – digging a little deeper with each step.

"One of the reasons that I did it," she said, "was because I knew it was going to be mentally challenging as well as physically challenging. If I know I can make it through this, then when I'm playing a match I can just reflect on this and make myself feel like I can get through anything.

"I have definitely used that in a ton of matches throughout the season. Reflecting back, I remembered how tired I was and I would think, 'This is nothing compared to that.'"

Wisconsin coach Tina Samara wouldn't let her forget, either.

"During those long, close matches, Coach Samara would tell me, 'Remember all the things that you have pushed yourself through – you've done it for this moment,'" Chypyha said. "I feel like that gives me a mental edge, a mental toughness over my opponents."

That singular focus and mindset will be put to the ultimate test Wednesday when Chypyha plays her opening match in the NCAA women's tennis championships at the Chase Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Chypyha is the first UW singles player to make the field since Caitlin Burke in 2007.

Samara knew that Chypyha had "it" in her from the first time they met three years ago.

"She was pretty upfront with her goals from the start," said Samara, a two-time All-American during her doubles playing days at the University of Georgia. "But also, it was obvious that it wasn't just words just by seeing her work every day."

The payoff was 95 career wins, the fourth most in school history.        

"When she wasn't at school, she came back stronger and better (after every off-season)," said Samara who just completed her third season with the program. "So it was clear that there was a lot of dedication behind those words. Technically, there were some things that improved.

"But honestly, the biggest improvement the last few years, especially the last year, has been more mental. Until this year, she was the underdog for a lot of her matches. This spring, she was a little more of the one with the target on her back.

"It took a little bit of time to get used to that feeling. There's no way to read books on how to handle that. But I think she's very comfortable in her own skin right now. I know it sounds cliché, but she really is in the best place since I've known her and that's where you want her to be."

After fashioning a 30-7 singles record this past season and earning first-team All-Big Ten recognition for a third consecutive year – the first to record this hat trick at the UW since the aforementioned Burke – Chypyha feels like she's ready for her "moment" on the NCAA stage.

"It's one of the goals that I had my eyes set on," she said. "I'm not overwhelmed. I feel like I belong here. I've visualized myself playing on these courts for the whole year keeping that goal in mind. So I'm just living in the moment because I imagined myself in this situation before."

Unseeded, and an underdog, again, Chypyha will have the biggest of mountains to climb in her opening match. Chypyha drew the nation's top-ranked player in junior Hayley Carter from North Carolina. The match is scheduled for Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.

Carter is 44-4 on the season and 125-22 in her Tarheels career. UNC lost to Virginia in the Sweet 16 of the team NCAA tournament last weekend.

That doesn't mean Chypyha will enter the match intimidated. She has a 3-1 record against competitors in the field of 64. She's confident but realistic knowing the vagaries and/or the luck of the draw. Style of play, especially if contrasting or unfamiliar, can be a determining factor in these early matchups. 

"No one in this tournament has an easy draw," Samara opined. "This is a big challenge for Chyps, but she has faced top competition all year. She'll be ready."

Not that Chypyha was expecting anything to come easy. 

"During the season, from week to week, you have a general idea of who you're going to play," Chypyha said. "If you know where you are in the lineup, and you know where girls play on other teams, you can prepare yourself. But going back to junior tennis, it always comes down to the draw."

Team Chypyha will be at full strength in Tulsa. That includes her dad Rodney; her mom Joan; and her sister Devin who just finished her sophomore year playing tennis at the University of Arizona. Competitively, as you might expect, Lauren wasn't about to concede anything to her younger sibling.

"Not yet, I'm not going to admit to that quite yet – we don't play each other for that reason – we don't need the tennis family fights anymore," she said, laughing.

Both were coached by Rodney Chypyha, a former hockey goaltender.

On everything she has achieved, Lauren Chypyha said, "I owe to my dad."

It was one of the reasons why she mentioned him by name during her commencement speech.

"When I first got asked to speak, I was thinking, 'Should I give him a shout-out? What should I do?'" said Chypyha who went with her heart. "I had that little line at the end."

After acknowledging the standard "ups and downs" associated with athletic competition, she emphasized, "I have felt the love of the Badger community. When my dad fought his battle with cancer my junior year, Badgers were there…"

Rodney Chypyha survived that ordeal, a brain tumor.

After her speech, Chypyha confided, "It was an emotional moment when I went back to the table and gave him a hug. We understand how much both of us have gone through during the course of my four years and it really meant a lot for him to be there…

"…and to be healthy enough to be there, too."

And now she's there – the NCAA tournament

"The last few weeks of my life hasn't really felt real – I feel like I'm sort of living an out-of-body experience," said Chypyha who graduated in political science with a certificate in leadership and has received a Big Ten postgraduate scholarship, one of 28 athletes so honored in the conference.

"I've always wanted to play professional tennis," she went on. "It's always been something that has been a dream of mine. I don't want to have any regrets when it comes to tennis and I don't feel like I'm ready to put down my racket yet.

"This summer, I will play in some professional tournaments and see how I deal with that. There will be no pressure. I have my degree and I will follow my dreams and see how good I can be. In the process, I'm going to study for my LSAT with the hopes of going to law school one day.

"I have those two paths running parallel right now."

What she would really like to do is prolong her stay in Tulsa. In other words, she wants to take things one step at a time, starting Wednesday. Why wouldn't she?

Especially since there's a good chance in that opening match that she will be thinking about steps, all of those steps at Camp Randall. And the sacrifices that she made to get to this moment.