News & Features

by Colette Lewis, 24 June 2024

Special from Zoo Tennis

Four years ago, Alexa Noel watched as the pandemic shut down most professional events, leaving college tennis as her best option for competition in the coming academic year. After that freshman year at Iowa, a serious ankle injury and a transfer to the University of Miami, the 21-year-old from Summit, New Jersey capped the 2023-24 season with the biggest title in college tennis, winning the Division I women's singles championship last month in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Noel, who reached the 2019 Wimbledon girls final and had been a junior star since age 11, had not considered college tennis as an option until 2020. But once she began her college career, Noel had immediate success, and after a 17-0 freshman year at the No. 1 position for Iowa, she was named Big Ten Player of the Year and an ITA All-American. Her outstanding first season ended not only with accolades, however; an ankle injury suffered during the 2021 NCAA championships led to a lengthy rehab, and when that failed to provide the anticipated recovery, Noel had surgery and entered the transfer portal. After signing with Miami in January of 2022, she began classes in Coral Gables that summer, and returned to competition in the fall.

Playing at the top of Miami's lineup, Noel went 24-4 in 2022-23 and finished this past season 27-8, with her last match a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Georgia's Anastasiia Lopata in the final of the NCAA championships. As an American champion, Noel received a US Open main draw wild card in women's singles; she had previously earned a US Open women's doubles wild card with Abbey Forbes as USTA National 18s champions in 2019.

During the first half of May, Noel juggled team competition, which saw her lead Miami to a second round upset of Florida in the NCAA Team Championships, her final exams, and her preparation for the individual championships. Noel recently received her degree with a major in sociology and a minor sports administration and spoke at Miami's special commencement for student-athletes unable to attend the traditional ceremony; she was recently named the Atlantic Coast Conference's women's tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

I spoke to Noel last week about her journey from Iowa to Miami, what she gained from competing in college, earning respect for her game, her plans for the summer, and several other topics.

Colette Lewis: What prompted you to transfer to Miami?

Alex Noel: At the time, I was frustrated with what was happening with my ankle, and I had had such a good freshman year and fall too, and I wanted to get more out of myself. I wanted a program that had higher competition, where I could climb in the rankings and have better match play, be on a team that maybe had a chance to be Top 10 in the country.

CL: When we spoke four years ago, you didn't seem inclined to play more than a year or two of college tennis. What changed over the past four years?

AN: I just loved it. I was so happy. Coming into college was such a different experience for me, because I didn't live that typical high school social life, have friends around the corner, because I was always traveling. So that appealed to me, just being in college in general, I liked that part. As for tennis, I think I improved and grew up, matured. Tennis is interesting, because everything is based around you, it's intrinsic. When you go to college, it's not. You have friends, you have coaches, you have your whole team, who is relying on you to do well. You have obligations that you just can't not do. I just grew up, realized that tennis is not the only thing in life.

CL: When did academic success become a priority for you?

AN: I wasn't a bad student when I went in my freshman year, but at Iowa, I wasn't taking it as seriously as I probably should have. And then I transferred to Miami, and your GPA resets, and I was like, ‘great, I can be as good of a student as I want to be.’ Not to put Iowa down, but Miami is a better academic school, and I just took a lot of pride in doing better at a great school. I really don't enjoy school very much, but my teammates were really super academically inclined and that pushed me; I didn't want to be the one bringing down the team GPA. They really helped me out and pushed me to be successful in school and (head coach) Paige (Yaroshuk-Tews) is the same way.

CL: What is the story behind your tattoo, which reads "starting over"?

AN: I was with my dad and we were driving out of Iowa City down to Miami, with all my gear and everything, we're just getting on the highway and my dad says, 'Alexa, play Starting Over by Chris Stapleton'. So I put it on, and the song is all about having a new life, turning a new leaf, moving on, taking a chance on yourself, letting go of what you have and chasing something that could be better. It was so fitting for the moment. That was 2022, but the tattoo was last January. I guess I'd never thought about getting a tattoo, but when I decided I wanted one, it made so much sense.

CL: How were you chosen to be the student-athlete speaker at commencement?

AN: That might be my proudest moment, actually. They had asked Bella, my teammate (Isabella Pfennig) originally, and she was like, ‘no, I don't want to do it, you do it.’ And I said, I'll do it. I was glad she didn't want to do it; it was really fun for me. My Starting Over story was part of the speech.

CL: You mentioned keeping "the receipts" after you won the NCAA title. Do you feel vindicated now?

AN: I feel like for a lot of my life in tennis I've had to constantly be proving myself. And I hated that, because I felt like I always was proving myself, I was pretty successful, had some good wins, good results, but it felt like I was drawing the short stick, people hating on me, saying I'll never be able to do this or I'll never be able to do that. So when I won NCAAs, it was like, ‘what are you going to say now?’ I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but in a what-more-can-I-do? kind of way.

CL: How will you prepare for the US Open?

AN: I'll play probably three more USTA Pro Circuit tournaments throughout the summer. I'll be in Miami, and in addition to Paige, I train in Delray, with Lorenzo Cava, the owner of ProWorld.

CL: Have you decided if you'll use your final year of college eligibility?

AN: No update. I really don't know. I've been home for nearly two weeks now, so I need to get back (to Miami) and have some talks, so we'll see.

CL: Is there a pro player's game that you've modeled yourself after?

AN: I never had any idols in tennis, I wish I would have. I don't have that fun story of when I was a kid I really looked up to so and so. But looking back at some players, I really admire Ash Barty. I know she's been done for a while, but I think that's someone, if I keep going, I can definitely draw from.

CL: Any thoughts on who you might like to play at the US Open?

AN: I don't care, it's just cool to be there to begin with. I'd like to win a round, that would be nice, not embarrass myself. To play someone Top 10 in the world on Ashe, a night match, that's a dream right? But if you play someone Top 100, not Top 10, you could win, so I guess I see the good in both.

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About Colette Lewis

Colette Lewis has covered topflight U.S. and international junior events as a freelance journalist for over a decade. Her work has appeared in Tennis magazine, the Tennis Championships magazine and the US Open program. Lewis is active on Twitter, and she writes a weekly column right here at TennisRecruiting.net. She was named Junior Tennis Champion for 2016 by Tennis Industry Magazine.

Lewis, based out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, has seen every National Championship final played since 1977, and her work on the tournament's ustaboys.com website led her to establish ZooTennis, where she comments on junior and college tennis daily.