Cameron ’15 started playing tennis when she was nine, but she really fell in love with the sport when she played on Marlborough’s tennis team in 8th grade.

She recently completed her fourth year on the Marlborough Varsity Tennis team and plays additionally outside of school. Her strong mental game toward each match and her devotion to the sport have led her to be one of the most successful players in Marlborough history.

Neither of her

parents played the sport, but her older brother, who is three years older, did when he and Cameron were younger. Her brother influenced her to pick up the sport, and Cameron’s goal was to beat him at everything he was good at, including tennis.

“I picked up the sport so I could eventually beat my older brother, and now I can,” Cameron said.

After her victory against her older sibling, she was motivated to carry on the sport.  Currently, she practices every day after school for at least two hours.

Patterson’s father, Worthy Patterson, explained how Cameron has become successful in the sport.

“By Cameron being able to concentrate more hours in a day into tennis, she has taken her game to a higher level and compete against nationally ranked players.  Through Marlborough competition, she went undefeated in her sophomore and junior year and won all league MVP the last two years,” he said.

Cameron explained that her success has not come without a lot of dedication and good attitude. Going into matches, Cameron creates a good mindset to help motivate herself to do well in a game. Instead of letting her emotions get to her, she calms her mind and focuses on the on each point. Before each tennis match, her dad tells her to “ride the wave.” This helps her mindset stay fixed on the match.

“My mentality before a match is that I just take it easy. Before every single match, I get anxious and nervous, but I think that’s what makes me do better. I focus on point by point,” she said.

According to Cameron, having confidence is also a big factor in being a successful athlete.

“Going into my matches, I am pretty confident and try to make things very simple. If I lose a point, I move on. I don’t get too worked up or stressed during a match,” Cameron said.

Cameron shared a stressful experience from a match last year, against Harvard-Westlake’s #1 singles player, that turned into one of the best moments in her tennis career.

“I was playing against this girl, and I was losing zero to five (0-5)…It was terrible, the worst match ever. But I ended up being the most proud of myself ever in a game. I channeled all my negative emotions I had and focused on each point. If I was going to mess up one point, I would have lost the match. I wanted to beat this girl. I turned the whole match around and won seven to five. That was the hardest but best match I’ve ever played,” Cameron said.

Cameron’s father recently noted that Cameron will soon achieve her goal of playing in a highly-ranked tennis program in college.

“She will be a part of the UCLA Women’s Tennis team next year, which is ranked number one in the nation.  It’s exciting!”