Growing up, shouting matches were not the only type of matches that took place between the brother sister duo of Henry and Sarah Eleanor Adams.
In fact Henry said he and his sister were born into a family that all participated in tennis.
“The reason we started playing tennis was because we have four older siblings who all played college tennis and then both our parents played college tennis as well,” Henry said. “We were in strollers at our older siblings tennis practices, so we just crawled out of the stroller and onto the court.”
The Adams siblings started their competitive tennis career as early as eight years old and have been competing since then all the way up to the collegiate level.
Henry, now a junior at ACU, has played on the team since his freshman year while Sarah is a freshman, competing in her first collegiate season, and making a name for herself.
Henry said that one of the reasons him and his sister are at ACU is because their oldest brother Henson played tennis for the Wildcats for a year before transferring over to Oklahoma Christian.
“That’s how we were able to get in touch with Hutton and John,” Henry said. “We decided that ACU was a good place to be and there’s a lot of good people that go here.”
Head coach Hutton Jones said he’s happy to have Henry and Sarah competing for his team.
“Henry has really matured and seeing him grow and buy into what we’re doing has been fun to watch,” Jones said. “Sarah just from fall until now has been fun to watch and she has been doing real well.”
Sarah has had major success as a freshman so far as she picked up her 15th singles victory last weekend against Southeastern Louisiana, which kept her in the team lead in singles wins. She said that she’s very happy to have a team that pushes her to do her best.
“I’m going to always try my best, so having that lead in singles victories makes it even better,” Sarah said. “It’s really exciting because next year I know that I will get to go to the bigger tournaments and I’m excited to see what the rest of my career is like.”
The Adams’ siblings also play alongside another set of siblings in Josh and Jonathan Sheehy. Jones said that there is a difference when comparing the brother and sister duo to the brother and brother duo.
“There is definitely more fighting between Josh and Jonathan,” Jones said jokingly. “They do fine, but they are more competitive with each other and it’s much more different when it comes to a brother and sister relationship.”
The Sheehy’s defended their case by saying they are able to practice and spend more time together.
“It’s different because we can practice more together and they could too, but it’s not the same,” Josh said. “We also get to play doubles and travel together.”
Josh also said that Henry and Sarah do tend to get along better off the court though.
Henry said him and his sister are nothing short of a normal brother sister relationship when it comes to being on the court.
“I’ll give her a hard time every once in awhile and it can get a little tense when we play doubles together,” Henry said. “It’s all in love though and we try to make it fun.”
Sarah said her and her brother have enjoyed their time at ACU together so far, even when she has to keep Henry in line every now and then.
As a program, the men’s and women’s tennis programs are a combined 6-1 in conference so far. Henry and the men will be idle until April 7, when they resume conference play, while Sarah and the women are back on the court this weekend against Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin.
