The Red and Black

Issue date: 5/1/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: JOSH D. WEISS Senior women's tennis player Natalie Frazier is ranked sixth in the country and has beaten four top-30 ranked opponents, making her instrumental to the team's success.

It's been a long and winding road in senior Natalie Frazier's tennis career, and that road is not about to dead end yet.

Frazier, a native of Riverdale, has trained her whole life for this moment - to be a part of a top- five program that is poised for a national championship run.

To sit at No. 6 in the country while being the leader of a turnaround not many expected for the Georgia women's tennis team.

To lead a team that finished 13-10 a season ago and was projected to finish fourth in its conference to SEC regular season and tournament championships.

It hasn't always been easy, but Frazier says it's been worth it.

"Last year I think we went through a lot more as a team," Frazier said. "Obviously our success wasn't as great. This year we made the changes and got on the same page."

Frazier's singles game has been a huge part of that success. She defeated some of the best players in the country this season, including Georgia Tech's Kristi Miller, Tennessee's Blakeley Griffith, Florida's Diana Srebrovic and Vanderbilt's Amanda Fish - all of whom are ranked in the top-30.

Despite singles success and the No. 6 national ranking, it's the team game that is the focal point in Frazier's mind.

"This year people are buying into the idea of being a team instead of being more concerned with themselves," Frazier said.

"We learned more from last year than any of my four years."

While Frazier accumulated a 16-6 dual match record in 2006 and received First Team All-SEC honors, the disappointment of a 10-loss season and an early regional round exit at the hands of Vanderbilt left a bad taste in her mouth, she said.

Frazier has traveled down a long path of ball machines and hard courts, starting at age seven when she picked up a racquet for the first time. A year later, tennis became not only an activity Frazier enjoyed, but a part of her

life that she couldn't do without.

On her eighth birthday, Frazier's juniors coach told her she needed to make the commitment to tennis and that he could turn her into a Division I player.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools