As a senior on the tennis team this season, Jordan Henry is looking to finish her ACU tennis career with a bang.
Growing up in Moore, Oklahoma, Henry says her dad has coached her in tennis for nearly her whole life.
“My dad’s been my coach for as long as I remember,” Henry said. “It was always me and him always out on the court together.”
In 2015, Henry won the Jim Thorpe High School Player of The Year award, which is the equivalent of a state-wide MVP award.
After graduating from Southmoore High School, she was ranked No. 1 in Oklahoma, 15th in the gulf coast states and 174th nationally.
She won the Class 6A singles championship to complete an undefeated senior season and toppled the two-time 6A champion in singles, 6-1, 7-6 in the semi finals and won the championship 6-1, 6-0 over an opponent from Bartlesville.
During her junior and senior years of high school, Henry was recruited by several NCAA teams, including Emporia State, Iowa State, Creighton and Drake.
“Whenever we were looking he put a radius on the map, my dad drew a circle right around Oklahoma City and said I want you to look at schools in this radius,” Henry said. “I want to come watch you play, I don’t want you to be too far away. So there were a lot of schools in that 500-mile radius.”
Henry said she chose ACU based on its’ atmosphere.
“ACU was my second college visit and whenever I came here, I was honestly blown away,” Henry said. “I loved the atmosphere, I loved the people, I loved the fact it gave you a Christ-like environment nothing else after that compared to this.”
Henry began her tennis career at ACU winning six of 10 singles matches, including two at Air Force, SMU and Grand Canyon and recorded a 2-4 doubles record with Leah Davis, with both wins coming at Air Force against teams from Texas State and Northern Colorado.
Henry was named to the Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll in the spring of her freshman year and posted an overall singles record of 9-12. She went 8-11 in dual competitions with six wins coming at No. 6 and two at No. 5. She also finished conference singles play with a 4-4 record.
In the fall semester of her sophomore year, she returned to both Air Force and SMU invitationals and won her matches, defeating opponents from Utah State, Northern Colorado, Northwestern State and UT Arlington and beat Texas A&M’s Mason Strickland, 6-2, 2-0.
She continued to dominate in the doubles with senior Autumn Crossnoe winning 5 double matches (two in Cincinnati, Air Force and one at regionals against Southland Incarnate Word).
In the spring of her sophomore year, Henry was named an ITA Scholar-Athlete and was named to the Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll. She was then awarded in doubles as a Southland Conference honorable mention at No. 3 doubles with Crossnoe.
In her junior year, Henry posted an 8-5 singles record, including wins over No. 46 Nebraska, No. 54 SMU and No. 30 Texas A&M. She made the Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll and posted a 3-5 (1-2 vs. SLC) singles record at No’s 5-6. She recorded a 2-8 doubles record with two different teammates, including a 1-5 mark with Crossnoe and a 1-3 clip with Ileana Mocciola and posted wins over Wright State, DePaul and Stephen F. Austin in singles.
Coach Walker said he appreciates what Henry does for the team day-in and day-out.
“[Henry is] always a senior that shows the other ones the way a little bit and leads them through things,” Walker said. “Whether it’s how to warm up, little things between matches, little leadership things like that.”
