Wake Forest Athletics
Photo by: Eric Roth
Deacon Sports Xtra: A long time coming
7/1/2021 12:31:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Junior Anna Brylin completes first full season, advances to NCAA Championships
Anna Brylin, a junior on the Wake Forest women's tennis team, topped off her first complete season with a trip to the NCAA Championships. Anya, as she is called by her teammates since there is another Anna (Campana) on the team, felt like it was a long time coming. Her freshman year was derailed by injury, and the pandemic cut short her sophomore season. But this spring she was finally healthy and ready to compete.
Brylin posted a 14-8 record this season with a 12-3 record playing in the No. 3 singles spot. In doubles, Brylin and Brooke Killingsworth posted a 13-7 overall record splitting time between the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles spots.
At the NCAA Doubles Championships, Brylin and Killingsworth looked poised to pull off an upset of the No. 1 doubles team in the nation in Kentucky's Akvilė Paražinskaitė and Fiona Arrese. Brylin and Killingsworth won the first set of the first-round match 7-5 but dropped the second set before losing a third-set tiebreaker 10-4. It wasn't the outcome she had hoped for, but it was nice to be able to end a season healthy and push the tournament's top seed to the precipice.
"It was definitely a tough loss, but at the same time, we have the confidence we can take anyone down," Brylin said.
Her father, Sergei, played professional hockey for the NHL's New Jersey Devils for 14 seasons and was a part of three Stanley Cup-winning teams. Sergei's career provided Anya with a look into the daily life of a professional athlete and what it took to be and stay competitive.
"Probably work ethic and attention to detail are things I wanted to pass along," Sergei said when asked about inspiring his daughter. "You've got to enjoy what you do out there, and you've got to keep it fresh and continue to get better every day. Those are the main messages.
"There's no secret to this. You just have to love what you do and have that internal drive. You're going to have good days and bad days, but you have to figure out a way to make the most out of it. It doesn't matter whether it's hockey or tennis, you've got to get better every day. It's important to have people around you supporting you and pushing you in the right direction. Tennis is a little different than hockey because you don't have your teammates out there, so my main job was to support her as much as I could on and off the court.
"She made a big step this year. She had some success the first year, but the second year is always tough, and she had some ups and downs. But the way she played this year tells me she matured a lot and figured out how to solve problems on the court. As a father and ex-athlete, I'm just so proud of her accomplishments."
Anya said her dad taught her a lot about discipline and how to compete.
"He was one of my biggest motivators, and I look up to him to this day," she said. "I knew I wanted to be as good as him in sports. In the atmosphere I grew up in, you have to work to succeed. My parents grew up in the Soviet Union. Even though he did so well in professional sports, he taught us to be humble because nothing is ever going to be given to us on a silver platter. My mom (Elena) didn't play any sports growing up, but she's driven us all over the place to tournaments when my dad couldn't be home much. She pushes me on the academic side, but without her, who knows where we would even be."
Those lessons were put to the test in her freshman and sophomore seasons.
"My freshman year I injured my foot pretty badly and was in and out of a boot for a few months," Brylin said. "I was still struggling with it over the summer, but to be honest it was still bothering me my sophomore year because the doctor said it had not properly healed. It was tough because I was a junior this year, and I hadn't ever competed for a full season. But at the same time, it motivated me because I knew I had at least two years of competition left, and I felt like I was halfway through my college experience and hadn't gotten out of it what I thought I would. So I worked hard in the fall and got my foot pretty much back to normal, and that allowed me to enjoy the season."
Head coach Jeff Wyshner said that Brylin "had a very good fall and, like many of our players, she went off and competed individually since we weren't allowed to compete as a team to get herself some tournament experience. She just came back in January and ran with it in both singles and doubles. She anchored one of our top three spots in singles all season with great success. We've looked for somebody who could win consistently in that third singles spot. That's a strong spot in the conference, and to be successful you have to win there."
Brylin admitted that it was a challenge to hold down No. 3.
"Everyone in college tennis is good and you just have to figure out a way to be better than them that day," she said. "But I kept thinking about how lucky we were to be playing this season and went out there with no pressure, to have fun and make the most of it. It was nice to have my teammates there cheering for me, so I just had to give my all to my team every single time.
"We didn't do much with doubles in the fall, so we were kind of all over the place. In January, Coach just put me and Brooke together on a whim until we got a few more people back, but we kind of clicked. He decided to keep us together, but that was definitely not the plan. No one saw it coming in January, so it was a good experience."
Wyshner said that after the pair beat a Top-10 team from Central Florida in the first weekend of the season, he decided to keep them together, "and they continued to grow as a team and make the NCAA Doubles. That's only 32 teams, an elite group to get into, and because of that, we got a school-record five individuals into the NCAA Tournament this year."
When Wyshner was recruiting Brylin, he could see many characteristics that would make her successful at Wake Forest.
"Anya is particularly smart, so she was going to be looking for a combination tennis and top academic situation," he said. "She's made the Dean's List every semester she's been here. We've recruited players who might be taking a serious look at the Ivy (League) and top-ranking schools in U.S. News and World Report. We thought Anya would be a really good fit for our program and the university. The way she competed on the court was passionate, but she always showed great sportsmanship, and she presented those intangibles that we emphasize in building our team culture and camaraderie."
Brylin posted a 14-8 record this season with a 12-3 record playing in the No. 3 singles spot. In doubles, Brylin and Brooke Killingsworth posted a 13-7 overall record splitting time between the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles spots.
At the NCAA Doubles Championships, Brylin and Killingsworth looked poised to pull off an upset of the No. 1 doubles team in the nation in Kentucky's Akvilė Paražinskaitė and Fiona Arrese. Brylin and Killingsworth won the first set of the first-round match 7-5 but dropped the second set before losing a third-set tiebreaker 10-4. It wasn't the outcome she had hoped for, but it was nice to be able to end a season healthy and push the tournament's top seed to the precipice.
"It was definitely a tough loss, but at the same time, we have the confidence we can take anyone down," Brylin said.
Her father, Sergei, played professional hockey for the NHL's New Jersey Devils for 14 seasons and was a part of three Stanley Cup-winning teams. Sergei's career provided Anya with a look into the daily life of a professional athlete and what it took to be and stay competitive.
"Probably work ethic and attention to detail are things I wanted to pass along," Sergei said when asked about inspiring his daughter. "You've got to enjoy what you do out there, and you've got to keep it fresh and continue to get better every day. Those are the main messages.
"There's no secret to this. You just have to love what you do and have that internal drive. You're going to have good days and bad days, but you have to figure out a way to make the most out of it. It doesn't matter whether it's hockey or tennis, you've got to get better every day. It's important to have people around you supporting you and pushing you in the right direction. Tennis is a little different than hockey because you don't have your teammates out there, so my main job was to support her as much as I could on and off the court.
"She made a big step this year. She had some success the first year, but the second year is always tough, and she had some ups and downs. But the way she played this year tells me she matured a lot and figured out how to solve problems on the court. As a father and ex-athlete, I'm just so proud of her accomplishments."
Anya said her dad taught her a lot about discipline and how to compete.
"He was one of my biggest motivators, and I look up to him to this day," she said. "I knew I wanted to be as good as him in sports. In the atmosphere I grew up in, you have to work to succeed. My parents grew up in the Soviet Union. Even though he did so well in professional sports, he taught us to be humble because nothing is ever going to be given to us on a silver platter. My mom (Elena) didn't play any sports growing up, but she's driven us all over the place to tournaments when my dad couldn't be home much. She pushes me on the academic side, but without her, who knows where we would even be."
Those lessons were put to the test in her freshman and sophomore seasons.
"My freshman year I injured my foot pretty badly and was in and out of a boot for a few months," Brylin said. "I was still struggling with it over the summer, but to be honest it was still bothering me my sophomore year because the doctor said it had not properly healed. It was tough because I was a junior this year, and I hadn't ever competed for a full season. But at the same time, it motivated me because I knew I had at least two years of competition left, and I felt like I was halfway through my college experience and hadn't gotten out of it what I thought I would. So I worked hard in the fall and got my foot pretty much back to normal, and that allowed me to enjoy the season."
Head coach Jeff Wyshner said that Brylin "had a very good fall and, like many of our players, she went off and competed individually since we weren't allowed to compete as a team to get herself some tournament experience. She just came back in January and ran with it in both singles and doubles. She anchored one of our top three spots in singles all season with great success. We've looked for somebody who could win consistently in that third singles spot. That's a strong spot in the conference, and to be successful you have to win there."
Brylin admitted that it was a challenge to hold down No. 3.
"Everyone in college tennis is good and you just have to figure out a way to be better than them that day," she said. "But I kept thinking about how lucky we were to be playing this season and went out there with no pressure, to have fun and make the most of it. It was nice to have my teammates there cheering for me, so I just had to give my all to my team every single time.
"We didn't do much with doubles in the fall, so we were kind of all over the place. In January, Coach just put me and Brooke together on a whim until we got a few more people back, but we kind of clicked. He decided to keep us together, but that was definitely not the plan. No one saw it coming in January, so it was a good experience."
Wyshner said that after the pair beat a Top-10 team from Central Florida in the first weekend of the season, he decided to keep them together, "and they continued to grow as a team and make the NCAA Doubles. That's only 32 teams, an elite group to get into, and because of that, we got a school-record five individuals into the NCAA Tournament this year."
When Wyshner was recruiting Brylin, he could see many characteristics that would make her successful at Wake Forest.
"Anya is particularly smart, so she was going to be looking for a combination tennis and top academic situation," he said. "She's made the Dean's List every semester she's been here. We've recruited players who might be taking a serious look at the Ivy (League) and top-ranking schools in U.S. News and World Report. We thought Anya would be a really good fit for our program and the university. The way she competed on the court was passionate, but she always showed great sportsmanship, and she presented those intangibles that we emphasize in building our team culture and camaraderie."
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