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Alexa Noel forgoes pro career amid pandemic, now represents Iowa in NCAA tennis championships
A fateful meeting and pandemic cancellation leads Noel to Iowa
Leah Vann
May. 23, 2021 8:00 am
IOWA CITY — Iowa head tennis coach Sasha Schmid heard a faint chant from across the street in London in 2019.
“Go Hawks!”
Dressed in her Iowa Hawkeyes gear halfway across the world at the 2019 Wimbledon Juniors tennis tournament, she thought it was funny as a couple, Juree and Brett Noel, approached her to indulge in the familiarity. As Schmid walked alongside the couple to the National Tennis Centre, where Wimbledon Juniors were being held, the three talked about all things Iowa City — Airliner pizza, Iowa football, what dorms they were in as students.
“And then I said, ’are you guys here to watch the tennis?’ And they said, ’We’re here to watch our daughter,’” Schmid said. “I said, ’Who’s your daughter?’ and they said, ’Alexa Noel,’ which is crazy, she went on to make the finals.”
Noel was No. 4 in the International Tennis Federation’s junior world rankings. Schmid thought for sure she’d earn a wild-card bid to turn pro. Nevertheless, she stayed in touch with the family and when the pandemic hit in March 2020, all of the professional tennis tournaments were canceled.
Noel was training in Florida at the time and returned home to New Jersey, when her mother brought up the idea of playing collegiate tennis.
“We were just sitting outside, just chit chatting, going through the ’what-ifs’ and, that's when I said, ’Why don't you email Sasha?’” Juree said.
Alexa has moved around a lot — born in Arizona, living in Canada and then New Jersey — but her familial roots are in Iowa. Her parents are from Grinnell and her dad, Brett, played football at Coe College while her mom is a University of Iowa alumna.
She knew if she couldn’t play professionally, she’d go to Iowa. And this week, she’ll be playing for an NCAA title as the lone qualifier from the Iowa women’s tennis team. She’s only the third Hawkeye in history to earn a singles draw and the first with All-America honors on the women’s side.
“It meant a lot to me that my mom went to Iowa and my dad being a local,” Alexa said. “It is just cool to come home to Iowa. It’s special.”
From the beginning
Alexa said she started playing tennis at summer camp at 5 years old because she needed something to do when her mom was working out at the local athletic club in Canada.
The family moved back to the states when she was 8, and it was then they knew she was going to be competitive.
She went from group lessons to private lessons and travel tournaments through the U.S. Tennis Association. By eighth grade, Alexa enrolled in home schooling because 13 is the age when players are eligible to play in for the International Tennis Federation.
That came at the cost of being a normal teenager.
“A lot of the time I traveled alone,” Alexa said. "It’s hard. You go to countries that don't speak English, or really remote places where you don't know anyone, and I actually traveled to Brazil alone. So it’s not easy. It is lonely.“
To be able to play in a Grand Slam, Alexa had to win tournaments at different levels in the ITF, which hosts 650 tournaments each year in 140 countries, featuring five numerical levels from J1-J5, with J1 being the strongest. The highest level, JA, is where players compete in junior Grand Slams.
That’s where Alexa was at age 16, playing on center court in the Wimbledon Juniors finals.
“It's weird because everybody's sending their kids to prom and our kid goes to the Wimbledon ball,” Juree said. “She's never been to, you know, a school dance.”
Making history at Iowa
One of the biggest differences playing college tennis is its team atmosphere.
Alexa quickly rose to the No. 1 singles spot above senior and fellow first team all-Big Ten honoree Elise van Heuvelen and played No. 1 doubles alongside junior Samantha Mannix.
With Alexa at the helm, the Hawkeyes went on to amass a school-record 12 conference wins, then made the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament for the first time in 11 years.
“She's just extremely crafty,“ Mannix said. "A girl will absolutely hit a ball as hard as she can, and she's able to defend it. She has really quick hands. She's extremely fast, so she gets to a lot of balls I'm shocked she can get to.”
Alexa earned Big Ten Freshman and Big Ten Player of the Year honors, becoming the first to win the player of the year honors in the women’s tennis program at Iowa.
She joined an elite club of Iowa women, receiving the news of her awards from Iowa women’s basketball Big Ten Freshman of the Year Caitlin Clark, Iowa women’s gymnastics Big Ten Freshman of the Year Adeline Kenlin and Iowa field hockey Big Ten Player of the Year Anthe Nijziel.
Alexa embraced the team aspect of college tennis, so much so that when it came time for Iowa to find out if it would make the NCAA tournament, she was crushed to learn her teammates wouldn’t join her in Florida.
“It was terrible, to relive it isn’t fun,” Alexa said.
Since Big Ten teams didn’t play much outside of their conference because of COVID-19 restrictions, Schmid believes they were at a disadvantage compared to other conferences. Iowa, which lost to the eventual Big Ten tournament champion Ohio State in the semifinals, had been just within the top 43 spots throughout the season and was snubbed because another team was able to schedule an exhibition match to boost its ranking.
Schmid said when a player like Noel joins the program, it raises expectations.
“She just 100 percent believed in us as a team every single time,” Schmid said. “When we lost to Northwestern and Ohio State this year, she gets on the bus and she literally is just so disappointed. It's not like, ’Oh I'm happy we played them close.’”
Noel didn’t drop a singles match this season, but it wasn’t lost on her the progress the team was making. Earlier in the season, the Hawkeyes upset Nebraska on March 28 in Iowa City. The Cornhuskers were No. 28 in the nation at the time. Iowa was No. 37.
“Even though she had won most matches previously, she told me that was one of the most proud moments she's ever had,” Mannix said.
In doubles, she added that competitive edge when Mannix needed it the most on the road against now-No. 44 Nebraska. Mannix is from Lincoln, Neb., so she was nervous to play in front of her home crowd.
“Throughout the morning, we were both very on edge for some reason,” Mannix said. "We go down 0-4 and we're both just like, ’Wow, this is not going great.’ And I think we came back to win 7-6.“
At the same time, it was the third time Noel was facing Nebraska’s Kristina Novak.
“I mean it was just so overwhelming playing all those matches,” Alexa said. “I literally was crying in a Panera for no reason. It was nuts, but worth it.”
Noel left for Florida on Tuesday to start preparing for the tournament, which starts on Sunday. In addition to leading her team through a historic season, she’s been the highest-ranked tennis player Iowa has ever had, most recently at No. 13 in the nation.
Schmid thinks she could be the first Hawkeye to win it all.
“I'm starting my 25th year coaching and it’s just not normal to have a player like Alexa,” Schmid said. “I can say that, in so many ways, she's been a gift to our program, but even though it was a curveball, I really think this year has been a gift to her.”
Comments: (319)-398-8387, leah.vann@thegazette.com