After three seasons of climbing Columbia’s lineup, Cassidy O’Neal made it to the top.
Once she got there, she thrived.
After starting her sophomore season as the No. 4 singles players and later finishing her junior year at No. 2, O’Neal took over the No. 1 spot and never looked back — going 13-5 in both singles and doubles while anchoring her team to a 12-6 overall record that included a season sweep of rival Suwannee. For her performances this season, O’Neal has earned the honor of the LCR’s Girls Tennis Player of the Year.
“Once I started taking lessons and realized I can be good at this, that was the goal and I was like, ‘I’m going to be No. 1,’” O’Neal said. “But when I was playing my first year, I never thought of it like that. I was just playing for fun. Then I kind of realized I really liked it, and I could get good at it.”
That ambition came with action. She spent the offseason preparing seriously, playing multiple times a week with a variety of partners to sharpen her game in addition to taking lessons. The effort paid off almost immediately as she defeated Fleming Island’s Tessa Wilson, who beat her twice a season ago.
That match boosted her confidence for the rest of the season and made her realize all her practice was paying off.
“When I beat her and I realized I played her last year and she beat me, I thought I could play with anyone now,” O’Neal said. “I realized I could put up a fight with anyone and I didn’t have to be scared to go and play someone.”
From that point on, O’Neal didn’t just survive in the top spot — she thrived. She avenged a tough loss from earlier in the year with a dramatic 8-6 win over Santa Fe’s top player Abigail Roberts late in the season, a win that sealed a rare 4-3 team victory over a Santa Fe program Columbia had never beaten during O’Neal’s career.
O’Neal says it was her favorite memory of the year.
“The first time we played them it was really close for the team, and in my game I kind of lost my head about it and got upset,” O’Neal said. “Then the next time I beat her and we won the whole game, so that was really exciting. I realized I came back and I did better for myself, and I also changed it for the team because we won.”
Columbia coach Brandi O’Neal, who is also Cassidy’s mom, said her daughter’s poise was one of the biggest differences in her game this season.
“She didn’t let a mistake get to her, and her serve was amazing,” Brandi said. “She was great. We played some really hard teams, and she excelled. She did amazing.”
Cassidy also found success this season with doubles partner Bailey Ring, who finished with a 13-5 record as the No. 1 duo. The two had chemistry from the year before playing together as the No. 2 doubles team, going 8-5, and that chemistry showed with their improvement this season at the top spot.
The pair nearly pulled off a thrilling win in the District 2-3A tournament too, but they fell to Lincoln in a long match that saw them lose in back-to-back tiebreakers.
“That was a little heartbreaking for us because we were so close,” O’Neal said. “It was harder almost to lose that close than to just get blown out. But we worked really, really hard. We played for almost two hours. They were great competition. I wish we had gotten to play them in the regular season because I think it could’ve gone a different way, but we had to get used to how they play. It was fun, but it was really hard and the end result was a little sad.”
O’Neal capped off her singles season with a win in the district quarterfinals, edging Mosley’s Kiersten Garcia in another tiebreaker for a 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 victory. It was another match O’Neal entered with confidence after also beating Garcia in a tiebreaker during the regular season.
“I knew it was going to be hard, but I knew I could beat her,” O’Neal said. “So I went into it with confidence but also knowing that just because I beat her last time doesn’t mean (I will again). It’s a whole different thing, so I really just tried to slow down and hit her.”
The win sent O’Neal to the semifinals, where her career would end at the hands of Lillian Zhang from Chiles, who will play collegiately at West Point. Zhang provided O’Neal her toughest match of the season, defeating her 6-1, 6-0.
Still, O’Neal felt she competed.
“Even though she kind of beat the crap out of me, I could feel I got better since the last time I played her,” O’Neal said. “I was proud of that.”
She’s also proud of how far she’s come after beginning her career near the bottom of Columbia’s lineup. While she won’t play in college besides recreationally — she’ll be attending the University of Florida to study psychology — O’Neal leaves the sport with nothing but gratitude.
“I enjoyed it more than I ever thought I would,” O’Neal said. “I started taking it more seriously and I realized it was kind of what I wanted to do. I wanted to keep playing and get better and be the best I could. It’s been a really good journey. I always tried really hard, but I went from trying really hard and still getting beat to being able to really compete with everybody because I worked so hard.”