Recent Crawfordsville graduate Lauren Hale will continue her tennis career at Hanover College in southern Indiana this fall.
Hale, who was a three-sport athlete for the Athenians, emerged in 2021 as Crawfordsville’s top singles player and helped lead the Athenians to a county and IHSAA Sectional title.
“It wasn’t until this year that I thought I could play past high school, but working with my lessons coach, he gave me some suggestions at some colleges I could play at, and I decided I wanted to play something in college,” Hale said.
“It was kind of weird, because tennis is the sport I’ve played the least. I’ve been playing my other sports (soccer, basketball) longer and choosing tennis was least expected. But I enjoy it the most, so it was a pretty clear option for me.”
Hale says she had never heard of Hanover before, but feels like it’s a perfect combination of what she’s looking for in college. She plans to study business.
Over the course of her tennis career at Crawfordsville, Hale says she felt at home within the tennis community and hopes that will continue at Hanover.
“From what I’ve experienced here in Crawfordsville, you get to know everybody, because a lot of people show up to the same lessons,” she said. “And I feel like that will be similar at Hanover. It’s a good community and people want to help each other.”
Hale is looking forward to playing at the next level and is excited about the opportunity to play doubles. She also says she owes a lot to her coaches and family for helping her prepare for this moment.
“I just want to say thank you to my coaches, and especially to my family over the past year, helping me be able to achieve the goals I had set,” she said. “My family, outside of practice, we would go out and they would help me and serve, so a big thank you to them for believing in me.”