Junior Emma Soltys has been playing tennis for 3 years for South and 6 years overall. She is currently on varsity for South, and she plays the position second doubles with her partner, Alaina Ahuja.
“When I was in sixth grade, my parents dragged me to my brother’s tennis matches and I thought tennis looked fun. During COVID, I decided to practice on the CB South courts because I had nothing else to do,” says Emma.
Emma Soltys is a well-rounded athlete as she also currently plays golf and does skiing. She used to play softball up until seventh grade because she wanted to focus more on tennis. She’s also played basketball, soccer, and flag football and participated in gymnastics and dance.
Still, tennis is one of Emma’s main sports. She explains how determined she is when she says, “When I made second singles for Tamanend, I worked really hard. Some days I would even go play in the dark with my dad.”
When Emma became a freshman, she immediately joined the CB South Girl’s Tennis Team. And when she was a sophomore, she made varsity, “and that’s what I was aiming for,” Emma says.
Emma is always on the go during tennis season. She has practices Monday through Friday from 2:45-4:15. “We just hit around and practice a lot of footwork and drills,” she says.
Right before a match, “We get on the courts, we warm up and stretch, and I always hit with Alaina 10 or 15 minutes before the match starts. We line up and then our names are announced, and we shake hands with the coaches and our opponents. And I always dissect our opponents’ weaknesses so I know how I should play,” Emma says.
When it comes to preparing for a match, Emma prepares herself both physically and mentally. “I always make sure I practice enough to feel confident before a match,” she says, “I tell myself it’s ok to lose and I really just try to enjoy it because I only have a couple years with this team and everyone is super nice, so I try to enjoy it as much as possible.”
Emma’s doubles partner, Alaina Ahuja, describes Emma when it comes to matches saying, “I’ve been playing with Emma since seventh grade, and she never lets the match take all of her attention. I really enjoy playing with her and she just has a great personality.”
The most recent match, the SOL Doubles Championship, took place on October 10th of last year. “I was there the whole day. First, we played against CB East, and we won. It was a pretty easy match. And then, I forget what school it was, but there were two girls playing singles and they were really good, they destroyed us,” Emma laughs.
Her third match was against two girls from South, Aditi Chathuruthy and Maggie Sowash, and Emma lost, but she really enjoyed playing and she was happy for Aditi since she ended up going to districts.
Alaina says this past season, “there has been lots of memories. We were really close to winning when we went against North Penn. We barely lost and we really tried our hardest.”
Overall, Emma has had an incredibly good season playing with her teammates. Looking into next season, Emma’s senior year, she says, “I’m hoping to play 3rd or 2nd singles because those are the best players on the team.”
As for the entire girl’s tennis team, “for the past two years we won our conference, so I hope to win again as a team next year, and it would also be my senior year so that would be great,” Emma says.
Looking even further into the future, she says, “I want to go to a four-year college. I want to major in either something with writing or environmental science. And my top college I want to go to is University of Connecticut.”
As for tennis, “I want to keep up with the sport, but I’d rather do a club team which is basically varsity and it’s less competitive than a college team,” Emma explains.
When Emma is not doing tennis, she does normal teenage things like hanging out with her friends and riding her bike. But she also says, “I try to go to the gym 3-4 times a week, I’ll usually do weights and cardio. I also ski every weekend at either Blue Mountain or Camelback in the Poconos or I’ll go to Vermont in the winter. I also play golf in the spring and summer.”
Emma is a very well-rounded, friendly person, and she owes it all her dad. “My dad is my biggest inspiration because he played tennis in high school and he always makes sure he pushes me to do what I need to be good at tennis,” she says.
Some advice Emma would give to young girl’s tennis players looking to play at South, she says, “Make sure to practice a lot because some people think tennis is easy and when they try out, they don’t make it because they didn’t practice. You should get private lessons, go to clinics, and practice by yourself.”
