Monica Hoz de Vila is having the best year of her life.
With the Ducks less than halfway through their regular season, Hoz de Vila’s 15-7 overall singles record has already surpassed the 14-14 record that she finished with last year.
In the Ducks’ last three matches, Hoz de Vila has put together three straight-set wins from the number five position.
Against Washington State’s Bianca Selaru – whom she lost to in three sets last year – Hoz de Vila was the first Duck off the court with a 6-1, 6-3 win.
The Duck who is known to the team as “Garra” (literally, ‘claw’ in Spanish, which Hoz de Vila says her teammates coined to describe her fierce, tiger-like on-court demeanor) replicated that win last weekend against Boise State’s Tiffany Coll.
Coll never seemed to find her rhythm against Hoz de Vila’s solid baseline game and heavy serve, and again, Hoz de Vila strolled off the court with a 6-2, 6-1 win while all her other teammates were still battling it out against the Broncos.
Finding the spark
Hoz de Vila seems unable to really figure out what motivated the spark in her play this year.
“What’s working right now is that I’ve just improved a lot,” Hoz de Vila said. “I’m just playing with what I’ve learned over my years on the court so far, and I just feel like with my experience, I’m now more comfortable on the court.
“I’m more mentally constant, and I don’t make careless mistakes.”
Oregon assistant coach Monica Poveda has been helping Hoz de Vila fine tune her game for two years now, and she says the biggest change in her game is mental.
“Mentally, she’s really turned herself into a better player,” Poveda said. “You can notice it on the court. She’s more secure now, she knows what to do, feels confident, and that’s the biggest improvement I’ve seen.”
First year Oregon coach Paul Reber also played a vital part in Hoz de Vila’s transformation.
In the preseason, Reber quickly identified Hoz de Vila’s Achilles heel: She wins more points if she doesn’t have to grind out a long rally.
“The longer points go with her, the more trouble she tends to get into,” Reber said. “So we’re looking to be more aggressive, pop some forehands, come into the net.
“It shortens the points up and she doesn’t really get into trouble as much. We call it being patiently aggressive.”
Hoz de Vila put in extra hours with the coaches, working to acquire a bigger serve and a more reliable net game. She says Reber’s process-over-results approach helped tremendously. He focused on encouraging her to try new techniques to improve in the long run, regardless of whether this translated into losses in the short run.
“Even in games, Paul was like, ‘I don’t care about results, you know what we’ve been working on, so just do it.’” Hoz de Vila said. “He taught me to risk it more and go for it.”
Mind games and more
But the coaches could only do so much. Only Hoz de Vila could control her mental psyche, and she says she thinks she’s finally taught herself to control the mental side of her game.
“I’ve always been very hard on myself, and I always wanted to do good,” Hoz de Vila said. “But I put too much pressure on myself. In these four years, I’ve learned to relax more and stop taking on unnecessary pressure. Stop worrying.”
Hoz de Vila forced herself to loosen up during matches, and to take a more positive mindset when she stepped onto the court. She began to realize that a more relaxed approach gave her more control over her emotions and actions in a match.
“I learned to relax before serving, and I worked a lot on my mechanics. My problem before was double faults,” she said.
It also helps that she’s now earned a regular roster spot, and is getting more match experience.
The catch-22 that Hoz de Vila faced before last year was that she’d play poorly in the few matches that came her way because of a lack of match experience, but she wasn’t able to get that experience because she wasn’t consistent enough to start very many matches.
“When I played well, it was great, but when I played badly, it was horrible,” Hoz de Vila said. “It was kind of a lottery there, and they never knew how I would play or if it would be a good day or a bad day for me.”
A steady stint at No. 5 this year has alleviated that problem.
“It helps me be more tranquil and not worry before the match or think that I have something to prove,” Hoz de Vila said. “That’s how I got tight before.”
The difference in her state of mind has manifested itself in the scoreline.
This year, Hoz de Vila has found the ability to close out matches when she’s ahead, something she’s struggled with in the past.
“I’ve learned to understand the game and myself better. Before (this year), I’d be ahead in matches, winning against good players, and then it’s like, boom, and I start thinking these negative thoughts, like I wouldn’t believe in myself, wouldn’t believe that I was winning, that I could beat this girl.
“I wouldn’t have much confidence on the court.”
Final hurrah
Despite her progress this year, for Hoz de Vila, this is it. Even though the senior harbored dreams of going pro at the beginning of her Oregon career, she’s decided that after she’s done with tennis in the spring, she’s not going to try and break onto the pro circuit.
“I’m kinda done,” she said. “After all the years I’ve dedicated to the sport, it’s very important to me to see how I’ve improved personally. I want to finish well. But at the same time, I’m young, I want to see more things in life, and being a professional tennis player is a lot of sacrifice.”
Hoz de Vila sees her impending retirement from tennis as a chance to do all the things she’s given up to dedicate herself to the sport.
“I used to play piano and do ballet. And I’d play basketball and volleyball at school,” she said. “I gave up all my extracurriculars for tennis when I was 12.
“Now I think I’ll just sacrifice tennis for other things: I just want to read more, and be more focused on my studies for next year, and just travel a lot. Just being in a university setting and seeing all the opportunities around – I want to experience all that before I settle down.”
Ducks take on the Pac-10
Oregon is going to need Hoz de Vila to stay on form this weekend as it begins its Pacific-10 Conference season. The 26th-ranked Ducks (8-2 overall) travel to the Bay Area to take on tennis powerhouses No. 4 Stanford (9-3), and No. 6 California (9-1).
The Cardinal have five ranked players in their starting lineup, and were ranked No. 1 until last week, when they suffered their first loss since 2003 at the hands of Georgia Tech.
“A lot of athletics is about seizing your opportunities,” Reber said. “Playing the fourth and sixth ranked teams in the country, I don’t know if you get a much better opportunity than that.”
“They’ve got some good players on their teams, but we’re pretty strong in each of our spots, so it’s going to be a battle.”
The Ducks play the Bears today, and will battle Stanford on Saturday.
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