Service Ace

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Even before tests confirmed she had torn her ACL for the second time, when she still only feared the worst, Sonya Macavei knew two things with certainty. First, her world was about to change. Then a Vanderbilt freshman already ranked in the top 100 in singles, her body wasn’t going to allow her the professional career that once seemed within reach for someone who played youth events at Wimbledon and Rolland Garos.

And second, she had never quit a match and wasn’t about to start. She kept her fears to herself and played on, winning the set 7-5 before finally yielding in the match.

“Obviously, if I knew for sure right then and there, I probably would have stopped,” Macavei said. “But my thinking was that if this is what I think it is, this is definitely going to be my last match for a long time. Let me just enjoy this one moment.”

With no less determination or passion, she’s spent most of the moments since finding ways to serve others. And enjoying the ride in ways she never imagined possible.

Named to the SEC Community Service Team and Spring SEC Academic Honor Roll each of the last two seasons, Macavei was recently honored alongside football’s Mustafa Dannett as Vanderbilt’s Brad Davis SEC Community Service Award winners. As women’s and men’s school winners, respectively, they are also nominees for the conference’s Brad Davis Community Service Leader of the Year honors.

This week was a microcosm of all the lives Macavei has squeezed into four years in Nashville. Amid practicing with her teammates ahead of Saturday’s NCAA Super Regional at Ohio State—and moving out of her housing into the temporary housing the student-athletes will occupy for the remainder of their postseason run—the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee put the finishing touches on the speech she delivered during Thursday’s Student-Athlete Graduation Ceremony in Memorial Gymnasium.

In her remarks, with language she said was inspired by Vice Chancellor Candice Storey Lee, she spoke to her peers about “daring to grow” and, in particular, her affection for the first word in the familiar refrain and university motto. Growth is the goal, necessary to accomplish anything meaningful in athletics or beyond. But it’s daring that makes the equation work. It’s the leap of faith she dared to take, to put aside what might have been and discover what still could be.

“If tennis was stripped away from me, who am I?” Macavei said. “If you had asked me before the injury, I probably would have wanted to be known for my tennis accomplishments. And there are definitely things I’m proud of accomplishing. But ultimately, I want to be known for the person I am. How did I treat people? Did I make this a better place? How did I help people on a bad day? What did I add to this program? And what did I learn from these people?”

An Education in Service

Macavei, who returned from injury and amassed 38 singles and 40 doubles wins with the Commodores, is a bit like a golden retriever on the tennis court. The comparison, if instantly recognizable and richly descriptive, might sound unflattering. But the words are hers. Her teammates, she adds with a laugh, just assume that her matches will go the distance. It’s as if she can’t help herself. She’ll run miles on the court and still want another set. Just like, well, you see where she’s coming from.

And yet, for all of that, even she marvels at the seemingly endless energy of the kids from Nashville’s Jones Paideia Elementary School. You want inexhaustible? Try first graders. During her weekly and sometimes even daily visits over the past two and a half years, in pre-dawn hours before school or after classes in the afternoon, they’re always ready for another piggyback ride or another game of cards in between help with their homework.

"I wish tennis always had this team environment. I look back now, and I don't know how I did this individually for so long—because everything is just so much better when you have eight best friends next to you. Things are just more fun. A 6 a.m. track workout is still hard, it doesn’t change that, but everything is just a little more fun when you go through it together."

Sonya Macavei on Vanderbilt women's tennis

Listing Macavei’s community service could span pages, ranging from the Metro Nashville Public Schools Book Buddies program to multiple “Love Serving Autism” tennis clinics, SAAC food drives and more. Understand Jones Paideia and you understand what drew her to all of them.

As her sophomore year began, she was still working her way back from injury and still trying to wrap her mind around its ramifications. A conversation with Katelen Watkins, then an assistant director of student-athlete development at Vanderbilt, helped convince her to throw herself into community service. One day, as winter break approached, she had a free afternoon and noticed on the app that connects student-athletes with service opportunities that Jones Paideia needed volunteers for after-school activities. Up to that time, she had mostly accompanied friends when they volunteered at various programs. On the afternoon in question, she took the initiative and went on her own. The scene bordered on bedlam, so many kids and a shorthanded staff. She loved the chaos.

“From day one, those kids just made it so fun, just their laughter and energy,” Macavei said. “I told myself right then that I was going to come back.”

She did, sometimes in the afternoons but most often by 6:30 in the morning (the program serves kids before and after the school day). She tried to adjust to whatever the kids needed. Hesitant to introduce “21” when one group wanted to learn a new card game, she invented a game to help with math skills (old habits die hard, so she had to work to rein in her own competitive instincts amid games of Uno). She helped rehearse lines for a musical or read books. Some kids just needed a hug and someone who would listen.

Whatever the role, and no matter what awaited her back on campus, she tried to fill it—at least for as long as her back held out, in the case of the popular piggyback rides.

Daring to Grow

Mind you, it’s not that she wouldn’t have wanted to do any of that when she was a freshman. It’s just that in those days, the residue of a bad practice or squandered match often lingered throughout the day, if not the week. Tennis gave her purpose, and rewarded her dedication with tremendous opportunities, Vanderbilt included. It also consumed her.

“God, if you had met me my freshman year, I was a maniac of a tennis player,” Macavei said. “I lived in this facility, to the point where they would have to kick me out. I also put so much pressure on myself and what I wanted to accomplish. I defined myself by tennis my entire life. If you asked me who I am, I would tell you I’m a tennis player.”

She learned who else she might be and what else she might be capable of from the kids at Jones Paideia—and not just that she had deeper reserves of patience than she previously knew. From them, and all of those she’s interacted with through her community service, she learned that the courage to try new things carries it own rewards.

Take a major. With a dad who works in IT, she originally planned on majoring in computer science. It sounded fun, right up until her first java programming class. She had a better chance taking a set off Coco Gauff. She tried econ, but it never felt right. She found her way to human and organizational development and loved that it felt applicable to every part of her increasingly diversified life. Whether in the locker room, volunteering and organizing or in business, her minor, understanding people and how they work together felt like a perfect fit.

From left, Clark Lea, Althea Thomas, Shea Ralph and Tim Corbin with Sonya Macavei during a campus event on leadership (Vanderbilt Athletics). 

By the end of her junior year, she even dared to put herself forward for SAAC president. She almost didn’t. It might sound strange about someone who spent so much time with all eyes on her on the tennis court, including at some of the most famous venues in the world, but the idea of making a three-minute speech in support of her candidacy terrified her. In that instance, tennis saved the day. Scheduling conflicts allowed her to record the speech in advance, a less daunting proposition. Yet after earning the presidency, there was no getting out of her emcee duties, alongside vice president and cross country runner Brady Bliven, at this year’s Golden Dores. She couldn’t bring herself to eat anything more substantial than a bread roll beforehand. She was surprised her shaking hands didn’t dislodge the podium. She’s pretty sure only the sight of her teammates in the crowd kept her upright. Once she started speaking, however, all the nerves faded away.

While still weighing whether to pursue the presidency, Macavei recalled Watkins telling her that she would sleep far better at night having tried than regretting that she hadn’t. If she hadn’t stepped beyond her comfort zone to run for president (she’s also co-chair of the group’s social impact committee), she wouldn’t have been able to play such a key part in SAAC’s first food drive, collecting more than 1,300 pounds of food to help those in need. Just as she wouldn’t have two-plus years of memories with the kids at Jones Paideia if she hadn’t set out on her own that afternoon. Just as she wouldn’t have discovered any of what she’s learned about herself if she allowed herself to wallow in a lost identity.

“Sonya’s journey these past four years hasn’t come without adversity,” women’s tennis head coach Aleke Tsoubanos said. “But in this time I’ve seen how many amazing qualities she possesses. She has a huge heart, strong work ethic, and a genuine care for her teammates, coaches, and our support staff that has stood out to me throughout her career. She’s developed into a wonderful leader and advocate of our student-athletes. Sonya’s commitment to various schools and programs in the local community speak to the kind of human she is and how much she values giving back to others while representing Vanderbilt with pride. It’s been a pleasure both to coach and watch her grow as a student-athlete in our women’s tennis program.”

A Champion’s Legacy

As Macavei’s time at Vanderbilt ends, there’s a line from poet Maya Angelou that sticks with her. It’s something she wants others to know, if only because she wishes she had earlier.

Forgive yourself for not knowing earlier what only time and experience could teach you.

She still doesn’t have it all figured out. Few people do by their early 20s—or even by the time they’re 60 (the age some of her Jones Paideia friends guessed one day when she asked them how old they thought she was). She still has moments of wondering about what might have been. Not so much with tennis anymore, but in those moments each of us encounters on an almost daily basis, of paths we didn’t take or opportunities we missed.

But chasing the ghosts of who we might have been, for better or worse, leads nowhere. All that matters is finding a path forward.

She found hers through championing others.

“This is going to be a crazy statement, but I’m almost grateful I got injured,” Macavei said. “Obviously, I’d rather it hadn’t happened in the first place, but I can’t change what happened. And I honestly don’t think what I’ve accomplished and what I have done up to this point would have happened without it. I guess we’ll never know.”

It’s impossible to know what matches she might have won or records she might have broken had events played out differently. But from her peers on campus to the kids at Jones Paideia Elementary School, there is ample of evidence of who she became—who she is. Vanderbilt women’s tennis is all the better for it.

About Anchored for Her

Through Anchored for Her, a comprehensive fundraising campaign, Vanderbilt is positioning women’s tennis and its broader women’s athletics programs as national leaders in advancing women’s sports. Anchored for Her’s initial $50 million goal will fuel investment in sustainable success for a new era of collegiate athletics through facility enhancements, endowed scholarships, coaching and staff positions, capital support and naming opportunities, team-specific Excellence Funds, the Women’s Athletics General Fund and the Competitive Excellence Fund.