Feature Written By Ed Paige

It's a funny how big-time American tennis works. You start playing tournaments around ten or eleven—earlier even—and keep orbiting the same opponents until you move to college. A new universe appears. But it's often the same thing—déjà vu—six separations yet still a kid's game. The higher up you go, the more you see those you came up with. Witness Fairfield's sophomore tennis luminary Amanda Novak.
 
With her selection as last year's MAAC Tennis Player of Year, Nowak, of Greensboro, North Carolina, recently played the prestigious Oracle ITA Masters in Malibu, California. Begun in 2015, the Oracle oozes exclusivity—invitation only—and bespeaks a very big deal. Each Division I conference gets to put its leading male and female student-athletes into the thirty-two-person event plus mixed. Quite simply, it's college tennis royalty: the best of USC, UCLA, Virginia, Wake Forest. Recent winners include current professional stars Danielle Collins of Virginia and Cameron Norrie of TCU. As for the mixed, it's the only time men and women play together in all of college tennis.
 
"I was very proud to represent Fairfield at the Oracle and become the school's first ever participant," Nowak said. "And as a mid major underdog I felt I had nothing to lose."
 
Nowak was accustomed to the environs as she was just in Malibu last spring when her Stags played Pepperdine University in the first round of the NCAAs.
 
Nowak and her head coach Jeff Bricker arrived in Los Angeles a few days before the tournament. Unlike last May's trip to southern California when the team visited nearby Venice Beach and the Santa Monica pier, it was all business this time.
 
 "There was no sightseeing," said Bricker. "I definitely wanted Amanda to play well and have her know she belongs in college tennis rarefied air."
 
Of course the event's setting, Pepperdine's hilly Malibu campus, defies description. Driving up a canyon to the site—dodging the plentiful deer—evokes a stairway to heaven. The grounds provide elevated views of the glimmering-blue, vast, majestic Pacific and bordering enclaves. Do Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks or Miley Cyrus live there? Biased here, but it's a California Fairfield Beach.
 
Nowak's opponent in singles turned out to be the number two seed Abbey Forbes of UCLA. It seems the two knew each other.
 
"I can't say that I played my best against Abbey," says Nowak. "We had really just gotten back to school and I lacked serious tournament competition. That said I learned so much playing her and just being around the top players. The difference is their mentality, footwork and execution on the big points."
 
Playing the mixed event with Monmouth's Max Benaim also proved enjoyable. "Along with the match what I most remember was how proud we both felt to represent our conference among the big boys," Nowak said. "It was the same feeling at the pre-tournament banquet where Jeff and I sat with players from Eastern Illinois, William and Mary, and Oakland."
 
"I, too, also enjoyed representing Fairfield," said Bricker. "I also liked hearing what the other coaches said to their players. Stella Sampras [yes, that Sampras] talked to Abbey just as I did to Amanda."
 
"At the end of the day this is where I want Fairfield and Amanda to be," Bricker continued. "Perhaps it will give us and her the incentive and dream to push on."
 
It would be nice to report that Amanda won her match. She did not. "I actually don't think I played very well," Nowak reported. "I was tight."
 
But, Nowak once had a different outcome. In the twelves at a southern section match in Cary, North Carolina, Amanda defeated Forbes of Raleigh, North Carolina. Who knew these Tar Heels would emerge on separate coasts?
 
Did the UCLA woman remember the previous encounter? "Abbey was so nice to me before we played in Malibu, talking fondly about the match and growing up." Nowak said. "It made me glad I played college tennis."