Soon after finding out that she had secured a coveted spot on the Washington University women’s tennis team last August, freshman Sophia Huynh was nervous. Her initial shock and elation at making the team as a walk-on had worn off. She was worried that she would not fit in on the team, which was full of upperclassmen and recruits.

“I started stressing about how all of these people on the team knew each other, and then there were the recruits and then there was me, the walk-on. I thought I was going to be treated differently, like I don’t belong,” Huynh said.

As soon as practices started, her fears had dissipated. The other players treated her as one of their own and she felt like part of the team. A major part of that comfort in the new environment was sophomore Hannah Johnston.

Courtesy of Hannah Johnston

Freshman Sophia Huynh and sophomore Hannah Johnston smile after winning matches at the Met Tournament in February 2017. After years of carpooling home from practices and matches with their high school team, Huynh and Johnston are now teammates once again for the Washington University women’s tennis team.

Johnston and Huynh had been teammates on the St. John’s School girls’ varsity tennis team in Houston, Texas, and had been friends for years. They had supported each other throughout high school, cheering each other on as the Mavericks won back-to-back conference championships and the two each flourished individually, so Johnston’s presence at Wash. U. was comforting for Huynh.

The two players had trained together over the summer to help Huynh prepare for the tryout and had been texting back and forth as Johnston tried to build her friend’s confidence. What facilitated the process was that Johnston had been in the same position herself just a year earlier. She had missed large portions of her junior and senior years in high school due to injury and had not gone through the traditional recruitment process, so she had also walked on at Wash. U. “I had just gone through the exact same thing myself, so I was the perfect person for her to be talking to,” Johnston said.

Sandy McLanahan, the head coach of the St. John’s team from 2001-2017, recalled Johnston and Huynh as evenly-matched friends who would spend long talks developing strategies against opponents. “Just during practices, you could tell that they knew each other pretty well,” he said. “They were good pals.”

Huynh jokingly remembered that the long talks often diverted from strategy. “They say that you’re supposed to play a match and then only take water breaks for two minutes, but Hannah and I play for 15 minutes and then we’ll sit down for a 35-minute water break and just talk,” she said. “We’re like, ‘Oh no, we should probably go play tennis,’ but after another 10 or 15 minutes we’d come back and take a super long water break. I always enjoyed hitting with her because there’s not actually a lot of hitting going on.”

Even though Johnston and Huynh might have a lot of spent time socializing while on the court, that did not prevent them from excelling. As two of the top players on the St. John’s team, they were often a step ahead of both their teammates and the competition. They typically only practiced with the St. John’s team two days a week, going off to individual coaching on other days.

Against opponents who were not focused on playing after high school and were instead looking for fun, the two players dominated. “We had races when we had people like that, which is so bad, but we would race to see who would finish first,” Huynh remembered, laughing.

Yet there were still times when each had to battle. McLanahan described Huynh as a power player with a dominant winner, while Johnston was more cautious, always taking calculated, high percentage shots from around the court. He recalled the St. John’s team’s march to the 2017 conference championship as a standout experience in his work with the two players. First, Johnston triumphed over an opponent from another Houston school that had beaten the Mavericks earlier in the season. Then, in the final round, Huynh defeated a girl who she had lost to just weeks prior.

“They liked to do the best they could,” McLanahan said. “They’re both fiercely competitive.”

Since high school rules prevented players from participating both in singles and doubles play, Huynh and Johnston only ever played side-by-side in practice matches. Their first-ever doubles match stands out. After swiftly sweeping their opponents in singles, they got the chance to play doubles together but fell behind quickly, losing the first five games. “We talked about it during a changeover and were like, ‘Okay, we just beat both of these people badly in singles. We need to get our act together a little bit,’” Johnston said. They rallied and won.

Since then, doubles have become a running joke for the pair. “We think about it all the time,” Huynh said. “About how we do not mesh as doubles partners but we’re still such good friends.”

Much of the friendship developed in long car rides stuck in dense Houston traffic. Since Johnston and Huynh live within a five minute drive of one another, Johnston would drive Huynh home after tennis at St. John’s. The two became so comfortable with one another that once, when Huynh fell asleep in the car, Johnston simply drove home, forgetting that her friend was in the back seat. “I don’t think you can spend an hour in a car with someone every day and not grow close,” Johnston said.

“We had very different friend groups at school and we were in different grades, so we didn’t interact much at St. John’s, but whenever we were playing tennis or in the car together, we’ve always gotten along really well and enjoyed being with each other,” Johnston said.

When she was first emailing with Huynh about the possibility of playing for the Bears, Wash. U. head coach Kelly Stahlhuth was not aware that she and Johnston had gone to the same high school. When she later found out, she marveled at how Wash. U.’s already-small bubble had seemingly narrowed into an even smaller world.

That world is soon going to get even smaller: Next fall, a third St. John’s alum will be joining the Bears. Hannah’s younger sister, Katherine, will follow her older sister and her longtime friend to St. Louis, becoming the third Maverick to make the journey north in as many seasons. Stahlhuth said it was probably the first time in her 15 years coaching at Wash. U. that she had had three players from the same high school on the team at once. “It’ll be fun,” she said.

According to Stahlhuth, Huynh and Johnston spend time with different friend groups off the court, but their bond is still strong. In December, the two players brought back the carpooling. They drove home to Houston together, a trip that took nearly 13 hours. Huynh recalled how she had promised Johnston that she would split the drive evenly but that after an hour and a half she was falling asleep at the wheel. Laughing, Johnston took over and finished the drive home.

“She drove like 12 hours and I drove like two,” Huynh said. “I think that really speaks to her kindness and her wanting the best for everyone. I’ve always seen that in her, so she’s definitely a friend I want to keep for a while.”

Johnston also emphasized her appreciation for Huynh’s friendship over the years. “It’s been really nice having a bit of home but also getting to see Sophia go through the same experiences that I went through,” she said. “And of course it’s slightly different for her, but it’s still kind of getting to share that experience again and I’m grateful to have it with her.”

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