Fallbrook's Jessica Willett helps San Jose State Univ. to WAC championship, named all-conference

Jessica Willett was part of the San Jose State University women’s tennis team which won the Western Athletic Conference championship and played in its first NCAA Championships tournament, and the 2011 Fallbrook High School graduate and current SJSU sophomore was also named to the all-conference team and to the all-tournament team as well as to a pair of academic-oriented honor lists.

“It was just definitely the best year of my tennis career so far,” Willett said.

The Spartans’ 19-6 record for the 2012-13 season included the May 11 loss in the NCAA playoffs to University of California, Irvine. It also included a Feb. 15 win at University of Nevada-Las Vegas, which was ranked 58th in the nation at the time. Willett’s singles match was a 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Anett Ferenczi-Bako. Willett and fellow sophomore Klaudia Boczova teamed in doubles for an 8-5 victory over Aleksandra Josifoska and Janine Erasmus. Josifoska was ranked 19th among the nation’s individual players at the time.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings cover the top 75 teams. SJSU’s 4-3 victory (college tennis scoring gives a team one point for each singles match victory while the school with the majority of doubles wins earns one point) over UNLV was the Spartans’ first defeat of a nationally-ranked team since February 2000 and was also the Rebels’ first home loss to an unranked team since 2001.

The win would also give SJSU its first national ranking in the program’s 35-year history; the Feb. 26 rankings placed the Spartans at #64. “That was pretty exciting. That was one of the goals that we accomplished this year,” Willett said.

More than 300 schools play tennis in NCAA Division I. “Just getting ranked in the first place was a pretty big deal for us,” Willett said.

The Spartans’ only Western Athletic Conference loss, and their only regular-season loss following their first ranking, was a 4-3 loss April 6 to the University of Denver, which was ranked 61st at the time. The two teams played in Logan, Utah, where SJSU had defeated Utah State the day before. Although Willett lost her singles match to Denver’s Steffi Rath, Willett and Boczova captured an 8-5 doubles victory over Emma Isburg and Mary van den Eerenbeemt.

The all-WAC teams were released April 25. The first and second teams each had six singles players and three doubles teams. Boczova and Willett were named as the #2 doubles team on the all-WAC second team.

“That was a really cool honor. I was really excited about that,” Willett said of her all-conference selection.

Boczova was named the conference player of the year. “It was really cool to play doubles with her. She’s a great player,” Willett said.

SJSU took a #66 ranking into the WAC championship tournament April 25-27 in Denver. SJSU’s April 25 triumph over University of Texas, San Antonio and the Spartans’ April 26 victory over Louisiana Tech led to an April 27 rematch against Denver, which had improved its ranking to #52 and entered the WAC finals with an 18-3 season record. This time the Spartans defeated the Pioneers by a 4-3 score.

“We were so happy and excited, and it was definitely one of the highlights of my entire tennis career,” Willett said.

Rath defeated Willett in singles while Willett and Boczova earned another 8-5 doubles victory against Isburg and van den Eerenbeemt. The conference championship was the first in SJSU program history, as was the invitation to the NCAA playoffs.

“It was definitely an exciting tournament,” Willett said.

“Winning the Western Athletic Conference was probably the highlight of my season. It was definitely the most incredible experience,” Willett said. “It was awesome.”

The WAC all-tournament team consisted of six singles players and three doubles tandems and included Boczova and Willett in doubles.

Because Willett was at the tournament, she missed being honored in person at the university’s annual Honors Convocation. A student with at least a 3.65 grade point average in two of the three semesters preceding the Honors Convocation is recognized as a Dean’s Scholar. Willett, a kinesiology major who took a 3.93 grade point average into the Spring 2013 semester, was the only tennis player on the Dean’s Scholar list.

SJSU was ranked #63 entering the first-round playoff match at USC while UC Irvine was ranked #32. “They definitely are one of the top teams in the country,” Willett said of Irvine.

Because Irvine scored its fourth and clinching point before Boczova and Kristina Smith could finish their singles match which had gone to three sets, that match between the two nationally-ranked players was not finished and Irvine won the playoff with a 4-2 victory. One of those points was in doubles, where Willett and Boczova took an 8-1 victory over Ali Facey and Brooke Schwyer for one of the Spartans’ two doubles wins. Willett accounted for SJSU’s only singles point with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Sarah Stadfelt – which made her the first San Jose State player ever to win a match in the NCAA Championships tournament.

All four of the teams in the regional competition at USC were conference champions (USC defeated Sacramento State in the other first-round match). “It was a really great experience even getting there,” Willett said. “It was truly an awesome experience. I’m very grateful to have gotten to participate in that.”

SJSU’s team record does not include the fall tournaments. Willett began her sophomore season Nov. 9-11 with the Santa Clara Classic tournament, winning two of her three singles matches and both doubles contests in partnership with Julianna Bacelar. Including the tournament and the playoff match, Willett had a 14-10 singles record during the 2012-13 season and was 21-3 in doubles while pairing with Bacelar, Boczova, and Amber Walker. During her 2011-12 freshman season Willett had records of 10-9 in singles and 11-10 in doubles.

The off-court season extended to the Student-Athlete Advisory Council’s SAMMY awards May 13 which recognized athletes’ top achievements in competition, the classroom, and the community during the school year. Willett was the only tennis player to be honored, earning 2012-13 women’s Top Five Undergraduate Scholar Athlete recognition for her grade point average. The five women athletes with the highest grade point average also included two gymnasts, a cross-country runner, and a swimmer.

“That was definitely one of the highlights of my semester academically,” Willett said.

Willett will take summer coursework at San Jose State before spending some time teaching at a tennis camp at the University of California, Davis. She expects to be in Fallbrook for approximately two weeks this summer.

“This was by far the best school year, semester, I’ve ever had,” Willett said.

Willett began playing tennis when she was 5 after receiving her first tennis racquet as a present from her uncle and aunt, Bill and Joan Willett. “That’s what sparked my interest in tennis,” Jessica Willett said.

Her aunt, as Joan Chabot, was one of San Diego County’s top-ranked youth players in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Willett, a lifelong Bonsall resident who attended Bonsall Elementary School and Sullivan Middle School, won her first tournament when she was 8. She was on Fallbrook High School’s varsity team for four years. As a freshman she teamed with then-senior Angela Maddock to win the Avocado League doubles championship in 2007. Willett earned first-team all-CIF honors as a junior in 2009 after reaching the CIF tournament singles quarterfinals, where she lost to eventual CIF champion Lacey Smyth of San Marcos. As a senior in 2010, Willett reached the Avocado East League finals before losing to teammate Hailey Johnson and then reached the second round of the CIF tournament.

Willett signed a letter of intent with San Jose State in November 2010. “I was just very, very blessed to have been given the opportunity to play here,” she said. “I’m so proud and excited to be a Spartan.”