Taped to the wall of Robin Stephenson’s office are two posters. On the blue one are the goals for her Georgia State’s women’s tennis team, as decided by the players in January. The largest goal, written in all caps, is “Win conference.”
Just in front of her desk last week, yet to find a home, was a large blue sign that says “Champions.” Fulfilling the goal on the blue poster, led by sisters Abigail and Marcia Tere-Apisah, who don’t share much other than genes, the Panthers defeated South Alabama 4-1 in New Orleans to win their first Sun Belt tennis title. It was the first title for Abigail, a senior, after three previous trips to conference tournament finals.
“My last season, I needed to finish strong,” she said.
She’s not done. Also on that white poster is written “NCAA,” which also is underlined. The tournament title earned Georgia State a spot in the NCAA tournament. On Tuesday, Stephenson and her players were drawn against Tennessee (13-12) in the tournament’s first round May 9. The winner will face the winner of the North Carolina-VCU match in the Chapel Hill regional.
If the Panthers are to advance, they will need Abigail, arguably the greatest women’s player in school history, to continue to play well. And they will need Marcia, a freshman, to continue to play as she did in the Sun Belt tournament while winning her singles and doubles match.
“Her (Abigail’s) leadership and her success has driven everybody forward and given confidence to the rest of team,” Stephenson said of Abigail.
That confidence was evident in the Sun Belt tournament. After Georgia State took the doubles point with teams led by Abigail and Marcia, Abigail easily won her singles match 6-1, 6-0. Marcia took the court and won 6-3, 6-3.
“Best match I’ve ever seen her (Marcia) play,” Stephenson said. “She just lit her up. She wanted it badly. She was shedding some tears after the match. You could tell how much it meant for her, for the team and her big sister.”
Below that blue poster in Stephenson’s office is a white poster in which each player wrote her defining personal characteristic.
Abigail wrote “positive,” and Stephenson said she stayed true to that all season. She was 16-2 in singles and in doubles during the dual portion of the season. She is 27-6 in singles and 23-4 in doubles for the season. She reached No. 8 singles and No. 16 in doubles, both were the highest rankings in school history and were part of the reason she was chosen the school’s female athlete of the year.
But don’t try to get her to talk about it. That’s where she and Marcia, a freshman, are very different. Abigail isn’t one to discuss her success.
“I’m not much of a talker to everyone,” she said. “I just lead by example.”
Marcia, however, has no problem talking. On the white poster, she wrote “vocal” and her sister and Stephenson concur. And, like most siblings, she doesn’t always follow her big sister’s advice.
“I tell her to be quiet, but she doesn’t listen,” Abigail said.
Marcia talks on the team bus. She talks on the court. Marcia said she gets that from her mom. Her talk on the court is mostly focused on self-encouragement. Doing so helped her go 9-10 in singles and 12-7 in doubles in the dual portion of the schedule.
Abigail and her partner, Masa Grgan, have developed a bond, so the sisters don’t play doubles together. And, because of their age difference, they don’t hang out too much together, though both said they would like to.
Of course the sisters share the desire to advance as far as possible in the NCAA tournament.
“They do share a special bond,” Stephenson said. “They are normal sisters. They have each other’s backs, but they can bicker at each other.”
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