Ottawa’s Zulee Moreland is the 2024 Times Girls Tennis Player of the Year

As a sophomore last year, Ottawa’s Zulee Moreland had a successful season at doubles with then-senior Makenzie Eichelkraut as the duo finished third at sectionals and won a match at the Class 1A state tournament.

This season, Moreland took on a new role at the Pirates’ No. 1 singles spot.

“The biggest adjustment going from doubles to singles, at least for me, was having more patience and pacing myself,” Moreland said. “In singles you are running much more, and the matches can be much longer, especially if you and your opponent are pretty even skill-wise. In doubles, for the most part, points end pretty quickly.

“My plan in every match was to try and tire my opponent out by trying to move them side to side and keeping the ball in play as much as I could.”

Moreland’s objective worked well as she won 23 singles matches, Interstate 8 Conference Tournament and Ottawa Sectional championships and claimed an opening-round victory at the state tournament.

Moreland has been selected as the 2024 Times Girls Tennis Player of the Year.

“I was very nervous at the start of the season, and making it to state wasn’t really something I had for a goal,” said Moreland, who is also an all-state saxophone player and member of the Ottawa softball team. “My actual goal was to improve my serve. After watching Makenzie kind of carry us with her serve last year and me now playing singles, I wanted to make my serve as tough as it could be. I was able to do that pretty well.

“But I think after the first couple of tournaments we went to in the suburbs and playing pretty well and keeping up against players from those schools, I gained a lot of confidence. There wasn’t really a certain moment this season when I thought, ‘Hey, making state is my goal,’ but it just became something as the season went along that became something I wanted to work for.”

At the Ottawa Sectional, Moreland defeated La Salle-Peru’s Grace Pecchio 7-6 (2), 6-3 in the morning’s semifinals, then Morris’ Shreya Patel 6-3, 6-4 in the championship match.

“Before the season started, coach [Steve] Johnson assigned us our spots in the lineup,” Moreland said. “In conference matches this year it was a little different than the past, so while playing singles I also played doubles with Yaquelin Hernandez-Solis, but I played much better as a singles player. I was also doing pretty well in singles at weekend tournaments we were in. Ultimately that was the reason Coach decided to have me play singles [in the postseason].”

At the state meet in the Chicago suburbs, Moreland opened the tournament with a tough 6-4, 1-6, 10-7 win over Effingham St. Anthony sophomore Julia Schultz, but fell 6-1, 6-1 to Timothy Christian senior Jane Carter. Moreland finished the tournament with a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Mundelein Carmel junior Gretta Leedy.

“My favorite memory at state this year was actually when I was down in the third set in my first match after not playing a very good second set. I was frustrated in the way I was playing,” Moreland said. “Coach Johnson and coach [Tracey] O’Fallon were super supportive, and they know how to talk without making me more nervous. Their words just really uplifted me, and I was able to come back to force a tiebreaker and then win it. They helped me overcome the anxiety I was putting on myself and gave me the confidence I needed.”

Johnson said during the regular season he is not only trying to create lineups that will help his team be competitive in duals, but also seeing what spots his players will have the most success in when the postseason starts. He said Moreland’s play in singles throughout the season made it an easy choice.

“This isn’t a knock on Zulee’s work ethic or abilities as a tennis player at all, but I didn’t see this coming for her,” Johnson said of the championships and state berth. “I guess for me the goal for her was to just get through sectionals, but she really stepped up and put herself into a situation to do what she did. She just played so relaxed the last day of sectionals, and it was fun to watch.

“Then at state she really battled in all three of her matches, and hopefully her experience will drive her even more next year to make it again and go even further. She had a very good season and worked hard to improve her game. That’s all you can ask for as a coach.”