“I might pass out … seriously,” Porter said. “It’s so cool. I love this school so much. It’s exciting to be making history.”
The senior will take that official step into school history Friday morning when she heads to the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason to begin Division II state singles play against Maddie Lynch, a junior from Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown.
Porter is small in stature (5-foot-2, 110 pounds), but she’s got a game that’s produced a 21-3 record this season.
“It’s weird to think that I’m going to state. I can’t even fathom the thought of it,” Porter said. “I had a lot of people tell me that this was my year to go to state and I just brushed it off. I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe.’ But it’s actually real.”
She is a late bloomer in the sport, someone who didn’t start playing seriously until several years ago.
Porter clearly isn’t as well-known as many of the top players in Ohio — she knows that some of her opponents don’t even know where Madison is — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to matchups. She’s not concerned about the fact that Lynch is a 1 seed at state while she’s a 4.
“I think it’s better to not really know who they are,” Porter said. “I’ve made it to this point. I just want to do the best I can.”
Mohawks coach Phil Stover likes to point out that Porter won her first 37 sets of the year before dropping one to Neda Tehrani of Seven Hills in the sectional semifinals.
Porter had already qualified for districts when she lost 6-3 in the second set. She rebounded to win in three and then lost to Summit Country Day’s Elizabeth Fahrmeier 6-0, 6-0 in the finals.
“Thirty-seven in a row is pretty remarkable,” Stover said. “I don’t know if it is a record, but it should be.”
At the district tournament, Porter won two matches to earn a state berth, then lost to Oakwood’s Lily McCloskey 6-0, 6-0 and Indian Hill’s Samantha Pregel 6-2, 7-6 (6).
Stover said Porter has an all-around game and noted that she hits the ball a lot harder than her diminutive frame would suggest.
“I said the other day, ‘You may not be 6 feet of tall, but you’re 5 feet of fury to say the least,’ ” Stover said. “She has adapted to anybody and everybody all year.”
Porter said power hitters aren’t always bigger.
“There’s a lot of girls that are tiny and hit hard balls,” she said. “You don’t really have to muscle it. It’s about your legs and your racquet-head speed.”
Her quickness allows Porter to get to a lot of balls, so her defensive skills are obvious, but she’s trying to become a bit more offensive. Her backhand is her favorite shot, and her forehand and serve are solid.
“I think my serve is really one of the pros of my game,” Porter said. “I disguise it very well. I don’t think they know if I’m hitting it down the T or dropping it off in the corner.
“I feel what I need to work on is strategy. I need to start strategizing points better to finish them off quicker. I think it will help me to play a little more offense than defense.”
She is a two-time Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division singles champion who plays out of Riverside Athletic Club in Hamilton.
Porter used to play soccer, basketball and volleyball, but she’s now giving tennis her full attention.
“I’ve been playing year-round since the end of my sophomore year,” she said. “I wish I would’ve taken it more seriously when I was younger. I might have been able to go farther earlier.”
She said her father Gregory, a former Miami University doubles player, always hoped she would start playing regularly.
Porter said the individual nature of tennis is appealing to her.
“It’s solely based on you,” she said. “I like team sports, but I like how I get to make my own practices. I go out and play whenever I want to play. If you’re having a bad day, there’s nobody to blame but yourself.”
She has a goal of playing collegiately at Northern Kentucky and becoming a nurse practitioner. But for now, Porter is focused on making an impact in Mason this weekend.
Stover said it’s been clear for a while that she has the “it” factor.
“It’s hard to pinpoint what ‘it’ is, but it was very easy to see that she had that inner fire to accomplish great things,” Stover said. “If I had to put money on her against almost anybody, I probably would.”
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