40 ■ THE WOLFPACKER
BY MATT HERB
efore her father would
let her take up tennis as a
young girl, Jaeda Daniel
had to assure him of some-
thing. She had to convince
him that she was going to
take the game seriously.
Because if she wasn't go-
ing to take it seriously, Mhyrlito Daniel
didn't see much point in even starting
down that path.
"My dad wouldn't let me play un-
less I really, really wanted to," Daniel
recalled. "He wasn't going to just give
me a racket. For whatever reason, he
was big on that.
"He was like, 'Unless you really want
to play, I'm not going to make you play.'"
Daniel did want to play, and her desire
to excel — a desire fueled in part by a
competitive relationship with her older
sister Jeannez — helped turn her into one
of the top players in collegiate tennis.
This past May, it also helped turn her
into a national champion. Daniel and
her doubles partner, senior Nell Miller,
claimed the first NCAA championship
in the history of the NC State women's
tennis program, defeating Daevenia
B
DYNAMIC DUO
Jaeda Daniel And Nell Miller Make History By Claiming
The Wolfpack's First Women's Tennis National Crown
Wolfpack head coach Simon Earnshaw paired Daniel (left) with Miller (right) in January, and the doubles duo went 27-5, including a victory over a
team from Miami (Fla.) in the NCAA championship match.
COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS
