MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Marlo Schiffman has spent more time on the road than Jack Kerouac.
This year alone, the rising senior tennis player at Upper St. Clair has crisscrossed the country playing in tournaments, from New Jersey to Las Vegas, from Rome, Ga., to Chattanooga, Tenn., all with the hope of improving her ranking and getting colleges to take a look at her on the court.
And it’s not like she’s flying first class and staying in four-star hotels on this sojourn.
“How we travel, it really depends on the price of the flights. We don’t go over seven hours of driving or my mom puts her foot down and says she’s not going to do it,” Schffman said. “But we do know a lot of people that drive 14 hours to a lot of the crazy places. I like being on the road. We go on little adventures between matches, like shopping or trying different cuisines because I’m a big foodie and I like Mediterranean/Indian restaurants and try different places.”
Her latest trip took her from Chattanooga where she competed in a USTA National Level 2 tournament to just outside Charleston, S.C., for this week’s Girls 18-and-under National Clay Court Championships. Schiffman lost in the first round of the singles portion, 6-2, 6-0, to No. 33 seed Kiana Graham of Austin, Texas, but came back to defeat Anna Shumate of Charlotte, N.C., 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (9-7) in a consolation-bracket match.
She never got the opportunity to advance further in the consolation round. She had to withdraw from her match Tuesday afternoon after she tore open a blister on her right hand and couldn’t hold a racquet.
It’s not the first time Schiffman has had to deal with injuries. After a runner-up finish to Norwin alumna and current Cincinnati Bearcat Maria Santilli in her freshman year with the Panthers in 2016, she missed most of her sophomore season because of stomach ulcers and was not allowed to compete in the WPIAL or PIAA individual tournaments.
An assortment off maladies has haunted her through her travels as well.
“It’s been tough,” Schiffman said. “I had to pull out of three section tournaments due to injury or illness, but the last three weeks, I played an ITA in Massachusetts and got to play against a lot of college girls. I didn’t win my first match, but it was close and then I ended up making it to the finals with my doubles partner in that ITA.”
Schiffman, like several other top players, opted not to play high school tennis last year in the hopes of increasing her exposure and landing a coveted scholarship. So far the interest is there and the offers are coming — though she and her family are keeping the names of the schools a closely guarded secret — but she has not made final decisions on official visits much less on a final destination.
“You personally have to be on top of the coaches because they are not going to come after you,” Schiffman said. “We have seen players who were five-stars and blue chips and they have told us that they’re not going to come to you, you have to write to them.”
It’s certainly a much different process than the one for major sports such as football and basketball, where the coaches will make the trip to see a player practice, play or schedule a home visit.
“My mom helps me with sending out emails. We originally started with 25 schools my freshman and sophomore years,” Schiffman said. “We narrowed it down to what’s realistic, who really does want me and, am I willing to be a redshirt for some teams or do I want to be in the lineup right away.”
Still, the longer the recruiting process continues, the less likely it is she’ll play for Upper St. Clair again. With the first days of her final year of high school fast approaching and the opening day of practice less than a month away, she has to make a more difficult choice than the one she made last year when she opted against playing for Upper St. Clair.
She is currently ranked as the No. 5 senior in the state and No. 4 in the WPIAL
“It’s definitely a lot harder because I have to figure out if I want to visit colleges during the tennis season because that’s a huge part of recruiting,” Schiffman said. “But if I’m able to get recruited by the end of the summer, then I’d definitely go and play for them.”
First Published: July 18, 2019, 11:15 a.m.
