3 minute read
Goodbye, Tennis and Hello, Hockey
SPORTS
Sasha Hartje loved playing tennis at Emory University. “It was amazing,” the Detroit Country Day School graduate and 2017 Jewish News Female High School Athlete of the Year said about her four years at Emory, a private school in Atlanta.
Advertisement
Hartje even has fond memories of the women’s tennis season this spring, when she played only one match for Emory because of COVID-19 quarantines and a positive test for COVID-19.
“I was completely asymptomatic when I tested positive,” she said. “I never lost my sense of taste or smell or had any symptoms.”
To make matters worse, Hartje had to endure the nasal swab COVID-19 test “where it feels like it’s touching your brain” on her follow-up negative test.
It wasn’t an entirely lost season for Hartje, even though she played only a No. 2 doubles match April 20 vs. Brenau (Georgia), winning 8-2 with partner Defne Olcay.
She was 20-11 in singles and 14-13 in doubles in three previous years for Emory.
Hartje enjoyed the season because Emory won the NCAA Division III national championship for the first time since 2016 and the eighth time in program history when it defeated defending national champion Wesleyan (Connecticut) 5-0 on May 26 in Chattanooga, Tenn.
As one of Emory’s three captains, Hartje did what she could to be a leader for the Eagles, who finished 10-3 in an abbreviated schedule.
“I was sad that I didn’t get to play because I’m a competitor, but you can’t take someone’s spot in the lineup when you’re not practicing,” she said. “Everyone on the team is equal. Everyone is out there busting their butt.”
To stay involved with the team and be productive, Hartje took on tasks like putting together music playlists for practices, coming up with games for weekly team Zoom calls, and organizing safe team outings like strawberry picking.
After the season was over, she designed the team’s national championship ring, which has the word “Gratitude” imprinted on the inside.
It wasn’t the first time the team turned to Hartje for design help. She also designed team apparel.
“Everyone trusted my opinion on designing things,” she said.
Emory didn’t have a season in spring 2020. The season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic before the Eagles could play a match on their spring break trip to Orlando, Fla.
While college women’s tennis teams play in the fall, spring is their main season.
Hartje graduated from Emory in May with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.
While she loved playing tennis at Emory after being a two-time high school girls tennis state champion at Country Day, Hartje also missed playing hockey.
So much that when she looked for a school to pursue a master of business administration degree, playing Division I women’s hockey there was a prerequisite.
The 22-year-old defenseman from Bloomfield Hills is headed to Long Island University, a private school in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Hartje has three years of eligibility there — two years because of the COVID19 pandemic and one year because she switched sports — but she plans to use only two years because getting an M.B.A. is a two-year program.
Long Island will play Yale at home Nov. 23. Sasha’s sister Elle Hartje plays for Division I Yale.
“Elle and I have never played against each other in any sport,” said Sasha, who was on an age 14-and-under national champion girls hockey team in 2014.
Sasha reached out to several schools while looking to play Division I women’s hockey.
She connected at Long Island with Coach Rob Morgan, who recruited her to play hockey at Yale while Sasha was at Country Day. Morgan brought Elle Hartje, who also attended Country Day, to Yale.
Sasha said Long Island is the perfect place for her to return to the ice.
“Coach Morgan has known me and my family for years, and he’s willing to take a risk with me after I didn’t play competitive hockey for four years,” Sasha said.
“I’ve missed hockey so much. I can’t wait to play again. I’ve really missed the fastpaced team aspect of hockey. Tennis is a team sport in college, but it’s also very much an individual sport.”
YSABEL GONZALEZ RICO Goodbye, Tennis and Hello, Hockey
Detroit Country Day alum Sasha Hartje switches sports as she enters graduate school.
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
