Wake Forest Athletics
Bea Bielik Balances An Outstanding Tennis Season With College Life
5/6/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 6, 2002
By Jay Reddick
Bea Bielik's senior season for Wake Forest has been nothing short of marvelous. Entering the NCAA tournament, Bielik has stood atop the national singles rankings in every week of the spring except one, and she's a member of the No. 4 doubles duo in America and the No. 7 college team in the country.
Yet if she had enjoyed this level of success a year ago... well, she might not have enjoyed it quite so much.
Sometime last summer, Bielik realized that even as one of the most decorated student-athletes in Wake Forest history, she was focused too much on the athlete side of the equation - she wasn't experiencing everything she could as a college student.
"I took everything so seriously," Bielik said now. "I was stressed out a lot, worrying about matches and practice. As important as they are, I didn't need to put such extreme emphasis on them. You have to grab a piece of everything in college."
To that end, Bielik made an effort this year to schedule more personal time to socialize on campus, enjoy the outdoors that is found away from the tennis courts and even visit friends outside Winston-Salem.
"It's made a difference," Bielik said. "I've been able to go away and have a life outside of tennis, meet new people. I just realized the years were flying by and it was time to do something about it."
That peace of mind certainly gave Bielik a boost this season. She lost only one match in the fall, the result of a midmatch injury and zoomed through February and March undefeated. Only a sprained ankle, which forced her to default a match against Duke on April 11 and miss the team's next three matches, has derailed her.
Bielik returned to the Deacons' lineup in the ACC semifinals on April 20. She'll have several more weeks to rest the tender ankle before the NCAA regionals begin on May 10, and with a 21-5 overall record, Wake Forest is certain to be there.
Of course, Bielik's surge can't all be chalked up to her time away from the court. She has put in plenty of time, both this year and in past years, to push her game to the top level of Wake Forest and ACC history.
"It's obviously been extremely fulfilling to see all the hard work paying off," Bielik said. "The individual results in the spring just come as they come. If I'm winning and the (team) record is good, then the team's doing well. This year, we've been lucky enough to do that."
The team's been lucky enough, and good enough, to stay at a high level for a very long time. The squad's been in the NCAA tournament, and the nation's top 20, for eight straight seasons. In spite of such obstacles as a six-player roster last season and only three upperclassmen out of nine players this year, the Deacons have persevered, and Bielik's been a big part of that.
"We're proving everyone wrong," Bielik said. "Everyone knows we're very young, and they didn't think we'd do as much as we have so far. It's been really fulfilling to see the team mesh as much as it has."
Just as Bielik's newfound freedom has helped her tennis, her tennis has, in an odd way, also helped her freedom.
"We have a lot of fun together," Bielik says of her teammates on the Deacons. "We've really clicked together, and gotten close. The chemistry shows itself during matches, when we all have a genuine desire to see each other win, not just for the team, but for each other. We genuinely care."
That helped Bielik quite a lot during her most recent injury, which put her in a walking boot for about a week.
"It's been really, really good to rely on friends and teammates during the tough times," Bielik said. "I've had some tough moments, and they've been right behind me."
Bielik's future plans include a short break from tennis this summer before she gears up for a hoped-for appearance in the U.S. Open, then a return to Wake Forest next fall for, she hopes, a triumphant senior year.
But all that is far, far away for now. First, the team has an NCAA tournament to win.
"We've gotten better every match, and our confidence is sky-high," Bielik said. "We've gotten a look at virtually everybody in the top 10. I don't see why we can't go all the way."
And if they do, rest assured, the once-stoic Bielik will be whooping and hollering with the rest of the Deacons.
