Font ResizeGreenholt recently underwent surgery to remove wisdom teeth, but she will be fine when girls' basketball practice begins.
In the meantime, her tennis game also is healthy, good enough in fact that she is the All-Area Girls' Tennis Player of the Year selection for the second straight season.
With a 19-4 singles record while playing out of the No. 1 position and posting an 8-4 doubles record with fellow All-Area first-team player Alli Meyer, Greenholt saved her best performance for her final season at the Tri-Township Park courts.
"I wanted to make it to districts and have the really good season I could have," Greenholt, who also participates in girls' track at South Western, said. "I wanted to work hard and put all I had into my last year."
South Western coach Kristen Meyer never had any doubt that her leading singles player would deliver.
"I wasn't surprised. She's just a high achiever," Meyer said.
The achievement included a third-place finish in the YAIAA Class AAA Championships and, with Meyer, the same place in the league doubles tournament.
"I feel my hard work did pay off," said Greenholt, who credited summer tennis tournaments and lessons through the Wisehaven Tennis Club for her improvement. "I wasn't as nervous going into the games and it just gave me some confidence I could place the ball and think through the plays."
By 2009, she
Sharing All-Area Player of the Year honors with Biglerville's Tricia Motter in 2008, Greenholt finished her Mustang career with 90 victories, according to Meyer, which ranks second on South Western's career list behind Wendy Carlson. Ironically, both Carlson and Greenholt close their careers as four-time All-Area first-team honorees.
"She was dominant in doubles, whereas the other girls were not dominant in doubles," said Meyer, also referring to Mustang standout Jennifer Keller, whom Greenholt passed in career wins this season. "It (doubles) is a different type of game and she (Greenholt) is just adaptable to both. She's just easy to get along with. She makes you feel comfortable and makes you feel you're just as good as she is."
Greenholt hopes to be good enough to continue her career in college. The possibilities include Bloomsburg, Loyola (Md.) and James Madison, and she hopes to combine tennis with her projected major of speech and language pathology.
"When I was little, I had to go to a speech and language pathologist to help with my voice," she said of the origin of her interest in the field.
However, wherever Greenholt goes with her life, her tennis racquet will probably be with her.
"I think I'll continue to play. I love to play. It's fun and relaxing for me, too," she said.
