My Experience on the Cadet Team
Jennifer Mast
12/20/2006

Last year, I made the U.S. Cadet Girls Team for the first and also the last time, since it was my last year as a cadet. I must say it was a different experience for me. I had never been out of the country before. Now I was going overseas!

My first two trips were to Sweden and Spain. It was something new to see so many young people at a high level of play, but best of all, no junk rubber! Most of the European girls were strong, two-winged loopers. I had a few close matches against some of them, although, in the end they usually won. Their strokes didn’t seem to be that much better, but they had a much higher level of consistency and mental strength. When playing against some of the Japanese girls, I always lost in three straight games yet still did better than I expected. The Japanese were so much faster than I was, and they hit the ball hard. A lot of the points ended with me running from corner to corner in a losing battle.

I also went to Canada several times where we often trained with their team members in the training camps they held before the tournaments. Playing against the Canadians, I again had a lot of close matches, although, this time, some of the matches I ended up winning. It was very encouraging to see that I was able to compete against them.

I feel that I’ve gained a lot of experience from playing in other countries against other young people my age, and all the training camps (there were also two short training camps in Europe and a ten day training camp in Florida) helped me a great deal. I enjoyed seeing more of the world and meeting people from different countries as well as making new friends. I also had a lot of fun playing for and representing the U.S.

I am very thankful for having had the opportunity to have this whole experience

[Playing Tips.]