Liu helps power Terps to success
Marriotts Ridge grad making a mark after enrolling early
Kallista Liu could be spending her senior year at Marriotts Ridge preparing for the prom, making plans for senior week in Ocean City and enjoying a wellearned case of senioritis.
Instead, Liu is preparing for Sunday’s Big Ten Conference matchup with Minnesota at noon at the Tennis Center in College Park. That’s because Liu opted to graduate early from Marriotts Ridge, enroll at Maryland and begin her tennis career at the expense of some of the spoils associated with enduring four years of high school.
“There are pep rallies and spirit week and prom,” the 17-year-old Woodstock resident conceded. “But I think my experiences on the college team and getting to travel with them are definitely a lot cooler than my high school activities.”
As ambitious as Liu’s decision was, it’s already paying dividends. She owns an 11-4 record in singles and a 2-0 mark in doubles as the Terps have raced to a 12-4 start — the program’s best record since 2017 — and a 1-3 record in the Big Ten.
Coach Katie Dougherty has been impressed with her youngest player’s rapid acclimation to college tennis.
“Kallista’s a proven winner,” she said. “Her stats have been trending up, and she’s done the same thing since she’s been here. She’s mature. She’s a little soft-spoken, and you don’t get a lot out of her, but the team absolutely loves her, and she’s melded in very well.”
Liu isn’t a one-sport athlete. She was an outside hitter on the Mustangs volleyball team and participated in the cross country and indoor track and field programs at the Ellicott City school. According to Maryland, she ranked in the Top 50 nationally in badminton and tennis before the coronavirus pandemic shut down access to indoor facilities to practice those sports.
But tennis has been Liu’s passion since she began hitting when she was 8 years old.
“For tennis, you either win or lose, and it’s all on yourself,” said Liu, who idolized five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova. “Sports like gymnastics or ice skating, if you win, it’s all dependent on a judge. You can’t really change the outcome if a judge decides that your
“Tennis is a small community, and I’ve seen a couple of her opponents realize they’re playing her and be like, ‘Oh no,’ just because they know how tough of a match it’s going to be. It’s happened at William & Mary, and it’s happened at a couple of places. If you knew Kallista from the juniors, that’s not the matchup you want to get because you don’t want to have to play her.”
points are lower than your opponent’s. In tennis, you can control the outcome yourself. And in team sports, if your team isn’t playing well that day, you can’t really control that either.”
In her freshman year at Marriotts Ridge, Liu played No. 2 singles and finished as runner-up in the 2019 Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association state Class 2A tournament. She contributed to the Mustangs capturing their first team state championship.
Veronica Cuellar, who was a senior that year and teamed with Stephen Alam to win the 2A mixed doubles state title, remembered Liu as a pivotal component in Marriotts Ridge’s run to the crown.
“She definitely gave me a run for my money several times during practice,” said Cuellar, an Ellicott City resident who is 4-3 this spring as the No. 1 singles player at Salisbury. “It was fun having her on the team. I know there were a lot of girls who were really close to her, and I know that she did really well in our county, regional and state tournaments and was one of the people who helped us secure our first team state championship that year.”
Mustangs coach Scott Dingman said Liu’s talent was especially evident in her play from the baseline.
“She was a great baseline player who had great power, spin, control, location, consistency,” he wrote in an email. “She was a threat from both the forehand and backhand sides.”
Last year was a banner one for Liu. A fivestar recruit according to tennisrecruiting. net who was rated the No. 1 recruit in the state and rose to as high as No. 36 nationally, she advanced to three tournament semifinals on the National Junior Circuit’s L2 stage and claimed the singles crown at an L3 event in Peachtree City, Georgia.
While competing on the circuit, Liu received a phone call in July from Dougherty, who found out that a veteran player would not be returning. So Dougherty asked Liu if she could enroll at Maryland early.
“I thought she was ready to go physically, super strong mentally,” Dougherty said. “For where she is age-wise, she’s super mature. We knew academically, she’d be OK coming in. And she’s been a fantastic fit so far. She showed up right in time for two-a-days in January and has done a fantastic job.”
Since arriving to campus in January, Liu has taken a crash course in personal responsibility. She has had to account for simple tasks such as waking up on her own, managing her time and finding the quickest routes to classes — “I think I had to use Google Maps for the first month,” she joked. She admitted that she misses the close-knit feel of high school compared to the lecture halls in College Park filled with as many as
— Kallista Liu, Maryland freshman tennis player
200 students.
Liu, who is planning to major in finance, said her classmates are surprised to learn she is only 17.
“They’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so young. That’s so impressive,’ ” she said. “I feel like there are a lot of people who are more mature than me. But I think I’ve become more mature than my high school friends after being in college.”
Liu said she doesn’t get homesick. She said her father takes her to practice every afternoon and then drops her off at her dorm, and she returns home every weekend she does not have a match or practice.
“And my mom calls me three times a day,” said Liu, who is an only child. “Texts would be like 24-7. … I guess that means that I’m important to her.”
Playing primarily at No. 5 or 6 singles with the Terps, Liu has impressed Dougherty with her conditioning and refusal to give up on points. She said Liu’s reputation as a competitor has preceded her.
“Tennis is a small community, and I’ve seen a couple of her opponents realize they’re playing her and be like, ‘Oh no,’ just because they know how tough of a match it’s going to be,” she said. “It’s happened at William & Mary, and it’s happened at a couple of places. If you knew Kallista from the juniors, that’s not the matchup you want to get because you don’t want to have to play her.”
Liu acknowledged that she did not anticipate the full extent of her early success at Maryland. She credited her teammates with making her better during practices.
“It’s really exciting being with teammates who are a lot older than me,” she said. “It makes me want to work harder to be just as good as them, and I don’t want to let them down.”