Seniors and longtime friends’ doubles partnership continues to blossom

Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips are accustomed to seeing eye to eye on the court. The senior doubles duo is currently ranked No. 5 in the nation, following top-10 finishes in each of the past two seasons.

The two weren’t always on even footing, though. Harrison’s earliest memory of her doubles partner involves her looking up to McPhillips’ tennis prowess on the juniors’ circuit.

“Kyle dominated everyone,” Harrison said. “I always remember seeing her name in tournaments as the No. 1 seed, and (thinking), ‘God, I wish I could be as good as (her).’”

Harrison was no slouch herself – she was a top-ranked junior player by the age of 14. As is common with top athletes in any sport, the two repeatedly competed in many of the same tournaments.

“Tennis is weird because you always see the same people, but you never get to really know the other players,” Harrison said. “We didn’t really become friends until we were 15 or 16.”

The duo first played together at an international juniors tournament in South Carolina. They came in as the No. 1 seed, but quickly found themselves in a hole after losing their first set 6-0.

The pair walked back to the bench to rest before the next set, with Harrison focused on rallying both her and McPhillips’ spirits.

“We can do this, anything can happen,” Harrison said to her partner. “We can do this.”

But McPhillips didn’t want to talk about the match, instead offering up an irrelevant comment.

“You’re freaking nuts,” Harrison responded.

“You’re almonds,” McPhillips said, sending both players to the bench in a fit of laughter.

The mood lightened, Harrison and McPhillips rallied back to win the match.

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Those idiosyncratic moments are what endear McPhillips to her coaches and teammates. They occur with such regularity that junior Kelly Shaffer has termed them ‘Kyle-isms’.

“Kyle is in her own world – in a good way,” Shaffer said. “We were all in the locker room once when she said she was hungry and left for lunch. She comes back (later) and says she’s still hungry because she got distracted by a squirrel and forgot to get food.”

Nature is McPhillips’ world. From hiking to paragliding, the Ohio native connects to the natural world as an escape from the chaos of Los Angeles.

On a weekend, you’re more likely to find McPhillips out hiking in Malibu or windsurfing in Santa Monica than lazing around in Westwood. Her outdoorsy attitude has rubbed off on the team, as she and Harrison now lead ‘Nature Sundays’ retreats.

While Harrison is best known as the reigning Pac-12 singles champion and the current No. 18 player in the nation, few know of her green thumb, or more specifically – her love of ferns.

“She gets really excited when she sees flowers and ferns,” McPhillips said. “I remember walking into a grocery store and she jumped up with glee when she saw this fern in a vase, and wanted it for her apartment.”

Harrison, known for her intensity and drive on and off the court, is far different in more relaxed surroundings.

“I spent this past Christmas with her in Memphis,” Shaffer said. “We bought Christmas hats in a Hobby Lobby. She has one with a partridge in a pear tree and I bought a singing deer hat and we just drove around Mississippi and Tennessee singing songs.”

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Poised to earn a third top-10 doubles ranking at the end of the season, Harrison and McPhillips are two-time doubles All-Americans and winners of the doubles title at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship. The duo complement one another on the court in terms of temperament, playing styles and skill.

“Cat has an amazing ground stroke and serve, she can just smash the ball,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “(This allows) Kyle to do her magic up at the net and put away volleys.”

Their styles of play have made them a force for UCLA on the doubles courts with such success that opposing players have taken notice.

“Kyle has a variety of shots and a high skill level which makes her hard to play in both singles and doubles,” said Giuliana Olmos, a top doubles player at USC. “Cat has brute power off both sides which definitely helps her out in singles as well as in doubles.”

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College has transformed the duo’s game from an unrefined style of play to its current polished version. Doubles is seldom practiced at the juniors level; players exclusively practice their singles game and hope for the best during doubles.

“In juniors you’re always winging it,” Harrison said. “If there’s a ball that goes down the middle, you both (attempt) to go for it, it was basically singles on a doubles court.”

The countless hours they have spent improving their game have led to a level of synergy and familiarity between the two.

“They set each other up very well at the net,” said Sampras Webster. “They’ve gotten to know each other’s game, and when to cross and when to stay.”

Initially thrown off by opponents’ intricate doubles schemes – such as the I, the Australian and offset formations – the two are now comfortable against such styles, which are used to confuse opposing pairs and bait them into unfavorable shots.

“Communication is key in doubles,” Harrison said. “Every point, she knows where I’m serving, I know if she’s faking or staying put or going.”

The two often are able to anticipate the type of shot that the other will hit, leading them to position themselves in a manner such that they can take advantage of the opponent’s weak return.

They are so in tune with one another that officials have mistaken their banter for emotional abuse.

When McPhillips, having fractured both her shins, was barely able to walk during the duo’s match at last year’s NCAA doubles championships, Harrison had to essentially play a two-versus-one match, sprinting back and forth to get to balls because McPhillips was unable to move.

The pair lost the match to Vanderbilt’s Ashleigh Antal and Astra Sharma, 6-4, 6-4. Afterwards, McPhillips came over to Harrison and began to apologize for her poor play. “You know what Kyle, you’re right, ” Harrison said. “You suck, you’re just a bad player.”

An official who heard her, not understanding the pair’s friendship, began to punish them for an ‘audible obscenity’ and attempted to penalize the UCLA doubles pair, Robin Anderson and Jennifer Brady, who were still competing by a point.

“I was like, ‘please don’t do this,’” Harrison said. “My coach is going to kill me.”

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With a young women’s tennis team in the midst of a transition season, Harrison and McPhillips have stepped into leadership roles this year, demonstrating to other players what it takes to succeed in college tennis.

When freshman Alaina Miller’s college career got off to a rocky start – she dropped her first collegiate match to surrender the decisive point in UCLA’s loss to Fresno State – Harrison and McPhillips made sure to pick her up.

“(They both) said they were so proud of me and that they were with me through it,” Miller said.

As the seniors’ respective journeys at UCLA come to an end, both anticipate the transition from college tennis to the professionals and believe that their friendship on and off the court will continue.

“We started at 15 years old playing other 15-year-olds, then we played in national and international tournaments,” McPhillips said. “Now we’re against college players and hopefully we play doubles in the pros and continue to grow and develop as a team.”

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