St. Joseph's College Of Indiana

On Saturday morning I drove three hours to a tennis tournament and college visit at St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, IN. It is a small Division II school in a town of around 6 thousand people. It has only three fast food restaurants and from what I hear Walmart is the main hang-out. The people enjoy driving slow, and the town is the definition of everyone knows everything about everyone.

I won my first match fairly easily but my second match was quite difficult. I played on a court with no alleys. Alleys aren't necessary for single but this is the first time I've played without them and was not used to it. I lost the first set 7-5 then came back to win the second set 7-5. We took our ten minute break and I won the third set 6-1. The whole match took over two and a half hours and I was so sore. It was the first day in a month that I played a competitive match of singles. The most exciting thing about the match was that the player played number 2 singles for the college team last year and I beat her. That put me on the good side of the coach.

After my matches, I ate with the team in their cafeteria. The food was better than I expected. Then I got a short tour of the campus, and I got to see the dorm I was staying in for the night. We got cleaned up and went to the tennis team's captain's room to watch some movies. They were surprised on how many movies I have not seen.

The next day, I lost in a three set match to the coach's daughter who is going to St. Joseph next year for college. I then played doubles with her and won the doubles division. The coach was very pleased with how I played and really wants me to play tennis on his team next year. I haven't made any decisions on where to go, but St. Joe is toward the top of the list.

It may seem weird but the thing I liked most about the college was that there is tons of grass and tons of trees. I like the fact that there is more grass than concrete. It is also a small Catholic school and my faith is very important to me. It is a gorgeous campus that I could definitely see myself at.