SEE Change with Annie Seelaus
Welcome to SEE Change with Annie Seelaus!
See Change is a podcast that was created to amplify the voices of amazing women across industries and sectors, and share their unique stories. Our hope is that this podcast will inspire women to disrupt the status quo and promote the next generation of change.
Listen in to the SEE Change podcast conversations here or follow our series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more.
SEE Change with Annie Seelaus
SEEing Change in Women's Paddle with Special Guest Macie Elliott
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A rising sport, a three-time champion, and a community that turns winter into a season of possibility—this conversation with Macie Elliott is a masterclass in how paddle tennis blends strategy, resilience, and partnership.
Join Annie as she talk through Macie's early roots playing tennis with her family in Evansville, Indiana, to her Division 1 tennis career at SMU and into paddle, where she has found the sweet spot where the screens rewrite shot selection and patience outplays power.
We delve into the mental side of the game and how racquet sports build resilience and determination. You'll love her take on accountability and composure—and her habit of reflection and adjustment. Strategy fans get a window into patterns, tempo shifts, and why the screens create both more strengths and more weaknesses to exploit.
We also face the access question head-on. Paddle’s reputation as a country club sport isn’t about culture, it’s about cost. Macie points to public facilities like Cleveland’s model, youth clinics, streaming, and regional camps as the levers that can expand the map across the colder half of the country.
Whether you’re a seasoned player or screen-curious, you’ll leave with tools for better shot choices, stronger partnerships, and a steadier mind under pressure. Join us at Canoe Brook March 6–8, cheer on the women’s draw, and help grow the game. If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find us.
About R. Seelaus & Co., Inc.
R. Seelaus & Co., Inc. was founded in 1984 by Richard Seelaus, originally as a municipal bond broker-dealer. The firm has since become a certified women's business enterprise ("WBE") and has grown into a full-service financial firm that is mission driven in its commitment to creating more opportunities for women in the financial services. R. Seelaus & Co., Inc. and its subsidiaries offer investment advisory, asset management, capital markets, brokerage, fixed income and equity trading, institutional sales, leveraged finance and insurance services. The R. Seelaus & Co., LLC subsidiary is a broker dealer registered with the SEC and member of FINRA, and the subsidiary Seelaus Asset Management, LLC, is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor ("RIA"). With various fixed income trading desks and more than seventy professionals, both entities serve individuals, families, public and private companies, non-profit organizations, and institutional investors. The firm has offices in NJ, CT, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, South Carolina, and Massachusetts.
For more information about R. Seelaus & Co., and its subsidiaries visit www.rseelaus.com
Meet Macy Elliott & Paddle 101
Annie S.Hi everyone. Today I'm really excited to welcome Macy Elliott to the SEE Change Show. Macy's the director of rackets at the Rolling Hills Country Club up in Connecticut and is just a super positive, fun female athlete and role model. Macy's currently gearing up to play in the American Paddle Tennis Association National Championships, which is coming in March to Summit, New Jersey, right down the street from our office. And by the way, she's one of the favorites to win the whole thing. It's a title she's taken home for the past three years. And if you aren't familiar with paddle tennis, it's played on kind of a raised fenced-in kind of tennis court hybrid. It's a little bit of a hybrid between tennis and pickleball, if I just want to oversimplify for the sake of the podcast. The topic of sports and supporting female athletes, and in particular, how sports can be such a change agent in our lives and such a tool of empowerment for young girls is something that's really important to me, and I just think a really, really important thing to support. So I figured what better way to introduce you guys to one of the stars of the tournament than by having her on SEE Change. Thank you so much for doing this. I'm so excited. And especially like in this lead up to nationals, I feel like I'm getting you at the right time.
Macie E.I think it's absolutely awesome that you're sponsoring the women's nationals. That's so cool.
Annie S.We were so excited to do it. And honestly, I'm just such a big believer in supporting women's sports generally. I think like in my own life, it was sort of game-changing to have access to athletics. And I just can see what it does for young girls, for women generally, confidence, social, all of it.
Macie E.Big time.
From Tennis Roots To Paddle Pro
Annie S.Um, so let's start just with a little bit about your background, how you got into paddle. Uh you grew up in Indiana and you were a tennis player, right?
Macie E.That's correct.
Annie S.Grew up in grew up in Evansville, Indiana.
Macie E.I grew up playing tennis, and funny enough, um, my my parents both played tennis recreationally, like when they started dating. And so then they really just got me into it because they said, Oh, this will be a cute thing for us to do together as a family. Right. You know, spend time just to make me learn the sport since they both knew how to play. And I find it very funny that they had no problem beating up on a seven-year-old. You know, like zero problem. And but then like I when I turned nine, I started I started beating them some, and they both quit within a year. And I said, Well, you guys, you guys are such sore losers. Uh so um that's how I grew up and started playing, and I really loved it. I loved um, I loved that it was all all on me at the end of the day. If you if you win, you can take the credit, but also if you lose, there's really no one else to blame but yourself. Right. And I think it really helped me kind of like mature having to go through that individual sport. And uh I got lucky enough to get recruited to play tennis down at SMU in Dallas and played for them uh all four years. And actually, my second summer, I ended up getting um getting a summer job to play to teach up in Darien, and then fell in love with teaching tennis. And so then whenever I wanted to do it full time, my boss was like, Well, you have to play this sport called paddle. And I'm like, I'm like, what is that?
Annie S.Because where I'm from, we don't have it. Right. That's what I was gonna ask. Is there a paddle in Indiana?
Macie E.No, there is in Indianapolis, but not in Evansville, where I'm from. So it's really funny because my brother owns a bar at home and he will put on the streaming, and no one knows what's going on. Like, what sport, what sport are we watching?
Annie S.I love it, I love it. Yeah, um, so you started to learn then paddle. Did you start learning in the summers during college? Okay. And then when you graduated, you already had some base knowledge of learning to play paddle.
Macie E.Yeah, so I played a little bit during the summers, and then when I got um, when I went to work full-time, I really got taught how to play paddle. So my boss taught me everything, taught me how to teach, taught me how to play, and kind of got into it from there.
Annie S.And at that point, were you paying playing competitively in paddle yourself?
Macie E.I only played, started playing tourists my second year. So my whole first year of teaching, I literally just taught and played socially and just kind of got my feet wet and got and got acclimated to the sport so I could have more of an understanding of it. I didn't get thrown into tournaments until my second year.
Annie S.Okay. And did you find that your tennis skills translated?
Macie E.Uh a little bit. I mean, obviously it kind of helps a little bit, but it didn't help with the screens at all. We're trying to, you know, say one screen versus two screens. I said, what? Right, right.
Annie S.And I feel like, I mean, you know, I never played tennis very competitively, but um, I feel like that tennis like sort of hit it as hard as you can, can be not an asset. When I was learning paddle, I sort of had to be like, oh God, you can't just hit it harder. That's not gonna win you the point.
Breaking Into Tournaments And First Wins
SpeakerYeah, exactly. So I think um at some point, I think it's actually good that I wasn't better at tennis than I am.
Macie E.Like I feel like I was just like I was good enough where all of it translated, but I didn't rely solely on like on my tennis abilities. I feel like I was I really uh embraced paddle for being something different.
Annie S.Right. So now let's talk about your career as a competitor in paddle. Um, you've obviously had tremendous success and hopefully are gonna have some more success coming up in a couple of weeks, but um, what has that journey been like? Did you sort of hit the scene and you were winning tournaments, or was it was there some sort of trajectory?
Macie E.No, it's actually pretty funny. I um I played my first year of tournaments and did okay. Like we were maybe winning the first round and then losing. Um, it's kind of a frustrating thing early on to compete uh in battle because you're always losing to people significantly older than you and sometimes as athletic, sometimes less. And you're like, how could I possibly be losing? Um, but it's a very frustrating thing. And it was interesting because as I started playing my first year of tournaments, we knew that Country Code Darien, where I worked, was going to host nationals like the following season. Okay. So they were gonna host 2020 nationals. And so I had in the back of my head, I said, okay, well, it doesn't really matter how I do now. I just want, I like, I want to make the semifinals of nationals at that point. And I remember I told someone that I wanted to do that and they laughed. I remember they laughed at me. They're like, you're saying it's not gonna happen. And that was a very motivating force to say, you know what, I'm gonna show you. I I I can do it. And I was lucky, and it wasn't really just me. I got really lucky that Marcella Rodezno happened, like her, her and her partner uh weren't gonna play together next year, and she asked me very luckily. Uh, and then when Marcella and I started playing together, we started having a little more success. We weren't winning any tournaments, but we like we got pretty far. We got to the semis, got to the finals, and uh, and then we had a great run at Nashville's in 2020 and ended up being able to win in front of a home crowd, and it was an absolutely like amazing experience. That's probably 800, 800 people, a bunch of them were my members at the time cheering us on. It was really, really cool.
Annie S.So, when you went into like rackets as a career, did you have any idea that you were gonna have this sort of parallel track of being able to still be a competitor yourself?
Macie E.Zero. I had zero idea that this was a thing that they and it's such a good competitive outlet for someone who's played sports their whole life. And I had no idea that this was such an amazing like paddle is the most amazing community of people. It really is. It really is, and I had no idea that's going into it.
Annie S.So and so you and Marcella played together for a couple of years, and then you split up.
Partnerships, Chemistry, And Strategy
Macie E.Yeah, and she was intellectual. Yeah, she ended up, she got pregnant. Oh, and then so she started she got pregnant and was in and out one year, and then the next year it was um we just weren't like we were getting to the round 16, we were getting to the quarters, we weren't really doing as well. So we said, okay, maybe we'll play some together, some not. And then she actually got asked by Liz Cruz to play like everything. So I said, okay, we'll just use go play with Liz. And I didn't really have a partner. And I was like, okay, we'll figure it out. And then Lynn became available. And so we said, okay, well, let's play tournament together, let's see how this goes with uh Linverse, and we ended up doing very well. It wasn't wasn't too bad of a partnership.
Annie S.A match made in heaven, as they say. So I'm like curious, how does is it is that idea of like people switching partners and finding partners and is it pretty social or does it get kind of cutthroat about who's with who and and trying to to poach from other partnerships?
Macie E.No, it's pretty good for the most part. But I do think that the the women's game in general, everyone stays together with partners uh much more so. Okay. And the guys is a little more flow the guys' flows a little bit more, but really the several of the top men's teams, they also just they just stay together the whole time.
Annie S.Okay.
Macie E.So but I think the women's partnerships are much more solidified in general than in the men's game.
Annie S.And so just out of curiosity, not to put you on the spot, but what do you think works about you and Lynn's partnership? Is it personality, is it playing style, both?
Macie E.Well, with um with Lynn and I, we did really well just because I remember her saying that um she it was weird how our energy matched so well. Like our competitive energy matched so well. And um, and that was really cool. She was always like she was super competitive and you know, kind of really into it and intense like me. And what's nice now is like my partnership with Lisa, because now that Lynn's not playing, Lynn's going to play Padel. Yeah, now Lisa and I, it's a um we fit really well too in a different way. Like it's not necessarily in the Uber competitive way, even though we both really want to win. Um, but Lee like Lisa is a very, very warm and very like affectionate and just like it's a different kind of um different kind of compatibility. Right. So it's like I I fit I have been able to fit with both of them very well and in very different ways. Oh, which is really cool.
Annie S.And do you guys spend a lot of time practicing together or does your schedule not permit?
Macie E.Yeah, so uh Lisa and I continued to do what I used to do with uh Lynn. We set uh one afternoon a week. Okay, and we practice together. Um, and because Lisa's down in Jersey and I'm up here in Connecticut, so I go to her most of the time because she has a two and a half year old and so um and we go, we we set aside that time to practice once a week. And I do think it really makes a big difference.
Annie S.Yeah, I think paddle's interesting because um there's in so many ways, it's almost like you're in a match, but you're trying to figure out this puzzle, right? Of like, how are you going to beat this other team? And I think that um sort of mental collaboration between the partners, it's like as important as that like physical or energetic compatibility.
Macie E.Yeah, and I think there's something to be said for like the more you're able to do that practice with your partner, then you know what they're about to do. And like you can see as they start to move, you you're like, okay, I know what she's doing, so then I know how I have to cover. Right. I know how if I'm starting to move, she knows how she has to cover. Right. And it makes a big difference.
The Mental Game And Resilience
Annie S.So um let me ask you this. I have sort of more questions, and and I want to bring it back to nationals and how you're getting ready for that tournament specifically. But before we go there, um, I'm curious about how you think about like the mental component of sports. And you know, you grew up playing tennis. It has to be up there as one of the most mental sports there is, right? Like you said, it's individual, it's all on you. Um, Paddle, you have a partner, but it's it's not that different. It's still a mental game in so many respects. How do you think about that and and preparing yourself?
Macie E.Um, I think that I didn't, you can tell me if I'm answering your question or not. I think that sports gives you such a such a chance to really push yourself and challenge yourself and gives you a place and a space to both achieve a lot but also be disappointed. Like I've had a I I think I've had a lot of self-reflection and a problem, and I feel that I've improved as a person because of a lot of um failure you could say I've had in the sport and learning how to deal with not succeeding and learning how to deal with, hey, you still have to try again, and learning how to deal with that you have to continually make yourself better versus just getting pat on the back all the time and say that, oh you're hey, you're amazing. You know? Yeah. Um I think that's I think that's the place where I've been able to um grow mentally and I really try to do a good job of being introspective and holding myself accountable. I think tennis and um paddle has led me to do that.
Annie S.Yeah, I think that as you as you've gotten older, and I'm curious about this, because we joke about it um on you know my recreational paddle team experience. You know, here we are, we're like in our 40s, we've got jobs, we've got kids, and like the worst thing that can happen to us is like we lose and you know, we lose the paddle match on Tuesday, and it's like you can't like talk all night and you can't get over it. Replay every point in your head, and I'm like, oh my god, like this doesn't matter, let alone, you know, for you, it's your career and you're playing on a much bigger stage, and you know, the stakes are higher, arguably. Um, I just wonder if you're still going through those same challenges, um, or if you've sort of gotten to this place professionally where you you can deal in a better way.
Macie E.No, but I you know what the funny thing is, is I actually think it's the same. Do you right? I don't see it as any different because really you could say the same thing for for us. Yeah, we're playing, you know, competitively and we're playing, you know, tours and we're pros, but it's this is also paddle. This is not like we're playing content to spray and slam. Like, you know, I can sit here and be upset, but you know, I'm not going and playing for Wimbledon. Right. It's all relative, right? Right? Right. And I think it's all relative and it can all be made as important or unimportant as you think it should be. But at the end of the day, you should still always want to do your best. Right. You should always want to push yourself and um do your absolute best.
Annie S.Yeah, and I think you you hit on something before, like that lesson that, you know, whether it's in the middle of a game or the middle of a match or you lose the match, um you have to learn those skills of like what's what's the takeaway here, and you know, how am I gonna do better? And I think, you know, we do a lot here to support like younger athletes. Um and I think there's so much that's tied to just like that idea of resiliency in life, right? Like things are coming at you, it's not always gonna go your way, maybe it's out of your control, maybe it's your partner's having a bad day, right? Um and what are the tools to overcome that?
Access, Growth, And Public Courts
Macie E.But I also think I think uh paddle even more so than tennis. The cool thing about it is because of the way the the game is and because the way that the screens are, there's much more where there's always you can find a way for like a lot of matches. I think you there's a lot of matches where you can play against someone who on paper is better than you and on paper like should win nine times out of ten. But you know, there is one time out of ten where you can probably figure out a way to make it work. And that's why I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool about the sport because there's because the screens add a whole nother dimension to the game, I think it allows for more opportunities to say, okay, they can also have more strengths, but they can have more strengths, but they can also have more weaknesses, and you can find a way to make the game suit you instead of them to a certain extent. Right. Yeah.
Annie S.Um, so I'm interested in talking a little bit about what your experience has been in um in paddle, but also just being a rackets professional um and the idea of like gender equality. And is the opportunity set for women in paddle, but certainly, you know, in being a rackets professional, is the opportunity set the same? Are there like still things that we need to be thinking about to make it the same?
Macie E.Um because I think I think racket sports more than most is very equal. Yeah. I think it's very equal. I mean, you even look at tennis, the prize money for um tennis. It was one of the first sports where the prize money was equal for both.
Annie S.Right.
Macie E.Um I think it's I actually think they do a very good job of it. That's I really do. I don't I don't see there's no holes that I see.
Annie S.That's so great.
Macie E.Really, I don't.
Annie S.I love that. Um, and what about like paddles this niche sport, right? It's like a bit of a country club sport. We can say it. Yeah, it is. Um, and it's not just a country club sport, but it's like a a super hyper regional country club sport, right? It's like kind of the Northeast Chicago. I don't know if it extends much beyond that. In the last uh tournament I played in, I played two women from Montana who had come all the way to New Jersey to play in this.
Macie E.Like so nice. Exactly. I knew exactly who they are. Aren't they lovely?
Annie S.I was like, can we be friends and all come out to Montana? Which sounds more appealing than them come to coming to New Jersey. Um, but they were saying there's not much out by them, so they travel a lot to play. Um do you see that changing anytime soon? Do you do you think it's like catching on? I I have to think things like some of the streaming that um APTA does on YouTube and and stuff that has to help. Um, I know you and your fellow pros are really good about doing camps and other types of things at different spots, you know, throughout the US that I think has gotta help. Um, but do you see any movement towards this like catching on to a broader audience?
Macie E.Um, I think it easily could. I think the unfortunate thing about paddle over the other sports is it's more expensive to build. So like the courts are more expensive than the others, and that's what leaves it to be called a quote unquote country club sport. The there's nothing else about it that really makes it a country club sport, because if any if anything, it seems like it's a much more laid-back atmosphere than than the others.
Nationals Preview And Seeds To Watch
Annie S.Right, and there's not a lot of equipment involved. Correct. So it should be accessible from that standpoint. I was actually talking with a woman from Montana about
Macie E.um, because she was saying how can we get more, you know, more courts, and that's really what you need. You need more courts, and you need to find a we need to find a way to have the courts accessible and have more public facilities. Like the Cleveland has done a great job with they have the Cleveland Flats, which is this big facility that they made, um, and it's a public facility. That's right. And I think that's just the question is like, where's that gonna come from? Where's the initiative behind that and how how does that work? But that's if the sport were to grow more than it is, it just needs more public facilities.
Annie S.Right. Because I think you've seen that model play out with pickleball a little bit more because they can repurpose tennis courts, but you're seeing pickleball be way more accessible publicly. Um but it but there is that hurdle with paddle, the the courts can't really be used for anything else, right?
Macie E.Courts really can't be used for anything else, and it does need to be probably every in the more northern part of the country. Like it needs to be somewhat cold. Cold weather sport, but there's no reason that it couldn't be more widespread throughout the northern part of the country.
Annie S.Yeah, I keep thinking that there has to be a way to bring it to more kids as well.
Macie E.Um I agree, and that's something that I've talked with Patty Hogan with quite a bit. It's like, how do we get more kids into the sport? How do we get more kids started like playing and playing tournaments? And just it's such a great thing to learn from a young age.
Annie S.It's such a great thing to learn. And uh, like you said before, it is just an incredibly like social and collaborative kind of fun thing. Um, I could I see it as something that could be a nice complement to more of the like cutthroat club sports that have sort of dominated youth athletics.
Macie E.Yeah, because it's um it's also what other sports do you really play outside in the dead of winter? And all these kids end up being they go to these indoor, you know, indoor sports, but they need an hour or two outside. Like they need it. So uh it'll be interesting to see how that plays out over the next few years.
Annie S.Um, so let's talk about nationals, which is really exciting. It's coming up March 6th through 8th at Canoe Brook Country Club, um, in right down the road here in Summit, New Jersey. Um how do you get ready for nationals? Like what's your process?
Community, Culture, And Mixed Doubles
Macie E.So, for anyone who's like not really in the paddle realm, just so you know, like nationals is the APTA Super Bowl. Like, not like we we do all these other tournaments all year long, but nationals is really what matters, and nationals were like I just talked with Leslie Cecilia this morning. Uh, and she they've done an amazing job to do all the work to host nationals and yeah, she's a course. You guys are doing an amazing job to like sponsor the women's
Speakertournament, it's incredible. Um, but it's just a three-day event, it's epic. Everyone comes and watches, it's a huge party. It's gonna be amazing this year because Drew Broderick, who's the host pro of Canoe Brook Country Club, is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. Oh, that's exciting. And he's playing at his home club. So it's it's gonna be an absolutely amazing event. And all year long, kind of open leads up to this. Everyone knows that, yeah, all the other stuff is you know, it's matters and it's a big deal, but nationals is really what matters at the end of the day. So we do a bunch of training, watching, we're watching some film, um, trying to do our best to stay healthy. Right, you know, at this part of the season when it gets when it gets cold.
Annie S.Yeah. So um, who are the teams to beat? Let's talk about the women's draw first.
Macie E.So, women's draw, it'll be interesting because we are going to play Midwesterns this weekend out in uh Cincinnati, and I think that will kind of determine the seedings. Okay. Because it'll be the top four teams will be um Bea, Lopez, and Taya Page. It'll be Anna Zaborian, Ellie Halbauer, um Charlotte Sakura, Allison Morgan, and I mean, I don't think they'll be in the top four seeds, but they're very much a contender is um Gabby Nicolescu and Marcella Rodezno, and then us will be me and Lisa Lalich will be in like the top four seeds. And I think the outcome of this weekend kind of changes the seedings.
Annie S.Okay, interesting. And and of those teams, do you have sort of the ones that you fear the most? Are you allowed to say that?
Macie E.You don't have to say it if you don't want to Well that would that would involve us fearing somebody, right?
Annie S.Okay, good answer, Macy.
Macie E.They are all they're all those teams that I just said, they are all incredible. Um, I have a lot, I actually really do have a lot of respect for all of them, but it's when people start to ask me, like, oh, who would you rather play in the draw? And no, you have to be mentally ready to beat everybody. So it doesn't matter.
Annie S.And um what about the men's side? Do you have a view? What's Alvi, I guess?
Macie E.Men's side, it's looking like well, we have Morgan McNerny. I think they would be they won't be the ones. It'll be uh Jose Salazar and Alvi Regalado. And then there it's actually it was just um someone just told me that the eighth seed is actually really up for contention. Oh, interesting. There's four teams, there's four teams that could be the number eight seed, and they're all like maybe one point off on the ranking.
Annie S.Interesting, yeah.
Favorite Shots, Roles, And Closing
Macie E.So because um Matt Moyo and Ethan Leone are in there. Tomas Christian and Drew Broderick. Gotta give them a shout out, gotta give a shout out to Tomas Christian, and then um there's two other Enrique Um and Mickey Dabich. And the fourth team is slipping my mind. Okay. So there's four that could all be like the eighth seed.
Annie S.Um, how often in these tournaments do you see someone like an underdog upset?
Macie E.Um, that's a great question. I can't I'm trying to think. The last couple years it's been pretty standard. There was, and then the couple years before that, I think the last time there was an upset was when Marcella and myself, we were the sixth seed. Right. And we were lucky enough to um to win. Usually the top four seeds, someone, someone gets it, unless there's something that I'm not remembering.
Annie S.Oh, that's cool. And I can imagine it's like a really you guys all know each other and have played each other a lot of times. It must be just a really like collegial atmosphere when it all comes together for these things.
Macie E.Yeah, and it's actually it's really fun because that's our whole our whole pile season is we end up seeing all these other great pros like every other weekend, and it makes it makes the winter like really, really fun. And then we all kind of get a little bit sad at nationals because it's like, oh, the it's kind of over, we don't see each other every other weekend. Right. Um it's not quite the same in the summer, and then not until next year. No, it's really it's so funny because we all talk about it, and um, my young pros that are that are starting in the tournaments, they they comment on it as well. Like tennis tournaments, everyone was super competitive and a little standoffish, and the atmosphere isn't great, and paddle is just so welcoming, right? Even like with all the other pros, it's it's so fun.
Annie S.Like rooting for each other and wanting everybody to be successful. I love that. I also think, you know, to your point earlier, the idea that like um paddle's inclusive of a lot of different ages, which is like not true of that many sports and at that like competitive level, but I kind of love that because I've found that like I've made a lot of friends with women younger than me, with women older than me. Like we wouldn't have overlapped through our kids or anything else. And like here we are all coming together through this sport.
Macie E.Exactly. I completely agree. We played this woman, and I'm it's kicking me that I don't know her name, but this woman was probably in her mid-50s. We played her a couple tournaments ago, and she was an absolute rock star. Like, I we just started off because she had a much younger partner, and we just assumed that she might be you know the weaker one of the two, and we started hitting to her. And in the middle of the match, we're like, I think we're hitting to the wrong person. Dude, she's killing us. And she was maybe four foot eleven, uh-huh, and she was absolutely like ripping and getting low and ripping four hands. She was a force, it was so cool.
Annie S.I love that. I feel like that's the other thing that's so great about the sport. You can aspire to like still be playing it in like 20 or 30 years if the if the punishing winter cold doesn't cause problems, but she she was real life goals.
Macie E.Yeah, real life goals.
Annie S.It's awesome. Um, so I won't take up too much of your time. We're so excited to watch you out there. I know you guys are gonna be successful. Hopefully, you're you're coming home with the trophy.
Macie E.Um, just now are you are you playing Nationals or are you just being a big time sponsor?
Annie S.Just being a a spectator, I'm gonna watch from the luxury of you know the the VIG the cocktail section.
Macie E.The cocktail section.
Annie S.Yeah, I um have yet to solve that like sort of mental puzzle. So I get to this point in the season and I'm like, oh god, I need a break from playing in matches. Um, but I'm really excited to be there. And I saw, I was over at Canoe Brook the other day and I saw what they're putting together um for this event. It looks amazing. I know it's gonna be just a really, really fun event. Um, before we let you go, we have to ask, like, what's your favorite shot? What's your best weapon?
Macie E.My favorite shot is my roller, which is when you basically hit a forehand uh out of the air, for those who don't know what a roller is. And uh that's probably my favorite shot. And then my forehand, my forehand drive has been feeling really good these days. Love that. Thanks to my uh my coach Tomas Christian, thankfully.
Annie S.He's good, he taught us how to play. Do you guys ever play mixed tournaments?
Macie E.You know, it's funny. We played, we practiced mixed together yesterday. Okay. Because we do have mixed nationals. Uh two years ago we got to the quarters, last year we got to the semis, and so we're like, okay, we just keep getting better. Um, but we actually we play pretty well together. Okay, that's good.
Annie S.Some relationships can't handle the mixed situation.
Macie E.I didn't say we never get invites, but we we do we still do pretty well.
Annie S.Um wait, so for nationals with Lisa, what side are you playing? What side do you play?
Macie E.I'm gonna play Deuce side. Okay. Uh, because Lisa can basically drive a ball from anywhere. I love that. She would she was uh I think about 250 in the world in tennis. Wow. Yeah, so she is pretty baller. Um that's okay. And so I let her have the outside and go have fun, and then I just sit over in my deuce corner and uh play play the patience game. And so people uh we we say if people want to play to us, it's like, okay, well, if you go to Lisa, if it's gonna be a quick death, you go to me, it's gonna be slow and painful. So, you know, which you know, you just gotta pick your poison.
Annie S.I love that. Oh, I'm so excited to see you guys out there. I know it's gonna be so much fun.
Macie E.Yeah, it's gonna be really, really fun. We're excited.
Annie S.All right. Well, hopefully everybody listening is gonna come out and support you guys and support the tournament um generally, um, because it's gonna be so much fun, and and hopefully you guys have good weather for it too.
Macie E.I know, I hope so. That's what uh what Leslie was saying this morning. Excellent.
Annie S.Well, thanks, Macy. Thanks so much for being with us.
Macie E.No, I think this podcast that you have is phenomenal, really, and I think thanks for everything that you're doing, and thanks for sponsoring the women's nationals. It's absolutely amazing. Happy to be a little bit of a lot of people.