women’s tennis
// k i m m y gu e ri n
A Link to the Past Freshman Kimmy Guerin was only the second player to never lose a match in high school in Connecticut, following Patty Murren, who also played at WFU By Jay Reddick
T
he word “lose” hasn’t really been in Kimmy Guerin’s vocabulary for a long time. The Wake Forest freshman never lost a tennis match at Weston (Conn.) High School, only the second women’s player in state history to accomplish that feat. In fact, she never lost a set. So in her first match as a Deacon last September, it came as kind of a shock when she lost her first set 5-7 to Salome Kvitashvili of VCU. Guerin responded as any competitor would — she won the second set 6-0. But then Kvitashvili put her on the ropes again, going up 5-2 in the third and deciding set…before Guerin won five straight games to take the match. Guerin didn’t prove to be quite as unbeatable during the rest of the fall — she compiled a 7-5 record going into the spring dual season — but her talent and poise have been evident right away as she plays an important role in the Deacons’ rebuilding process. Guerin admitted that falling that far behind in a match was a rarity for her.
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gold rush magazine
“I didn’t come back that much in juniors,” Guerin said. “I was usually either winning big or losing big to the very top players. It was a really fun experience, just trying to keep my head in the game and not freak out.” From the earliest part of Guerin’s high-school days, as she began her 97-match undefeated streak, her name was linked to another former Deacon standout. The only other player in state history to go undefeated in four years was Patty Murren, who went on to a stellar career at Wake Forest. Murren was named All-ACC in 1996, her senior season, and is one of only 10 Deacons to win 100 career singles matches. Murren’s feat, compiled at Immaculate High School in Danbury, Conn., became known in local tennis circles as the “Murren Slam” — an undefeated high school career, including four consecutive State Open singles championships. So Guerin had heard Murren’s name, and knew her background, from an early age — knowledge she said could have played a small role when it came time to pick a college. “I started hearing about Patty after I won the State Open my