With only 150 pounds distributed over a 5-foot-11-inch frame, Geoff Embry initially doesn’t look like a threat on the tennis court – until he goes into his serve windup and unleashes a booming ace that thuds down on the inside corner of the service box, right past his unsuspecting opponent.
Even though he’s the skinniest player on the team, Embry is a fleet-footed all-court player who is nimble at the net while also possessing a big serve.
“It’s always kinda been there,” Embry said. “My coaches in Arizona always told me I had a great serve. It was just a matter of whether I would grow into it. I try to think I’ve put on muscle (since entering college), but I don’t know if that’s happened.”
Size doesn’t always matter, especially in tennis. Embry’s lithe, rail-thin frame means that he can zip from sideline to sideline faster than the bigger guys.
“I’m not really big or anything, but things definitely go both ways,” Embry said, grinning. “I’m skinnier, so I’m a little faster. But I’m definitely gonna try and get bigger in the next couple of years.”
“He’s wiry,” said Oregon assistant coach Bart Scott. “We’d like him to put on a couple of pounds and get heavier in the offseason, but I don’t think it’s a disadvantage to him. If you watch closely, Geoff hits a huge ball. Flexibility is the main contributor in that respect because you don’t have to be a huge guy to hit a huge ball.
“When he fills out and gets some man strength, he’s gonna be great.”
But Embry has already made an immediate impact for the Ducks this season. In singles, the freshman from Phoenix, Ariz. put together an eight-match winning streak to kick start his Oregon career, and is now 12-5 on the year in duals.
Embry also found early-season success in doubles with fellow freshman Alex Cornelissen. Cornelissen and Embry won seven of their first 10 matches together and have been an instrumental component for the Ducks’ lineup this season.
But big serve and big game aside, Embry also brings a tangible, infectious energy onto the court.
“(Alex and I) have a lot of fun on the court,” Embry said. “Nils (Schyllander, Oregon’s head coach) always tells us to play with energy, so we’re always looking to do that.”
With his feisty fist-pumping, chest-bumping style of play, Embry is known for wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Scott says this can be both a good and a bad thing.
“We’re trying to instill poise and composure in him,” Scott said. “But in college tennis, you have to play with emotion and adrenaline. When Geoff chest-bumps Alex on the doubles court after making a huge point, it fuels the energy on courts 2 and 3 in a really big way.
“We have a lot of international players, and they’re competitive, but a little more reserved. It takes a little bit of time to adjust to a different format of play because they don’t play the team game internationally. But when Geoff gets fired up, it just gets everyone going.”
Embry started his Oregon career coming off a 23-1 senior season at Mountain Pointe High School where he won the Class 5A singles championship, and was named the 2006 Boys High School Player of the Year in Arizona. But his biggest accolade was the Gold Ball he took home when he won the Boys 18-and-under doubles championship at the USTA Winter Nationals last year.
“The Gold Ball is what every American player aims for, and it’s very hard to come by,” Scott said. “The U.S. is a huge country with a lot of tennis players, so Geoff essentially won the equivalent of say, a Spanish National title. If you’re a national champion in the U.S. you’re very, very good.”
Even with the Gold Ball on his mantle, Embry says he didn’t know what to expect when he first got to Oregon.
For one thing, the Ducks had just brought in two new coaches and amassed enough players to field two teams. So Embry was initially a little taken aback when he realized that he’d have to compete against more than half a dozen players for the six available singles roster spots.
“When I was getting recruited, I was told I was probably going to come in and play,” Embry said. “And then (former coach) Kevin (Kowalik) left, and I was like, ‘Okay what’s going to happen now?’ Then I came in and showed up for the first day of practice and there were 10 other guys there, and it was like, ‘Wow, all right, this is gonna be a little tougher than I thought.’”
Things have shaken into place since then, and Embry now features regularly in the bottom half of the Oregon singles lineup. And he likes being part of a big team because it creates more pressure to make him perform.
“I like having the other guys around, having more people to push you and make you play your best,” he said.
[email protected]