By Roscoe Nance
 
Perhaps it was the audacity of youth. Then again, it may even be blind faith that prompted Morgan State tennis coach Matthew Townes to tell freshman Danielle Thompson three years ago that the Lady Bears would contend for the MEAC championship by her senior season.

At the time that Townes, who played tennis at Morgan State from 2004-08, made that statement, he had just accepted his first college head coaching job and was yet to celebrate his 28th birthday. 

But his words rang true. 

The Lady Bears captured their first MEAC championship since 1994 – and second in school history – two weeks ago, just as Townes had said. In the process the Lady Bears earned their first-ever berth in the NCAA Championship, where they will play first round host North Carolina Friday.

“As a player, I believed back then both teams (the men and women) could be successful,’’ the 32-year-old Townes said, explaining his bold statement to Thompson. “I always had that in my head. I didn’t know the level of competition for the other teams in the conference, but I had a lot of confidence in myself that with a player like Danielle, we could build a team a team around her that could win the championship.’’

Townes coached junior tennis in Baltimore before becoming coach of both the men’s and women’s programs at Morgan State. He and Thompson trained together while she was sitting her freshman season, so he knew first-hand what type of player she was. But building a championship squad was a slow and sometimes painful process that was fraught with losses.
 
The Lady Bears were 6-9 in Townes’ first campaign. They improved their win total by one victory each succeeding season before posting a 12-12 mark this year heading into the NCAA Championship this past weekend.
 
“It hasn’t been easy at all,’’ Townes, who had Thompson and Kayla Price, who is no longer with the team, as the centerpieces of his squad at the outset, said. “I knew these two young ladies were special. We tried to add a player or two every season.’’
 
However, Townes’ roster-building strategy seemed to be stuck in the mud. Over the years, he lost players to academics and for disciplinary reasons in addition to having some transfer out. The losses continued to pile up, but Townes remained confident.
 
“I knew that if we stayed focused on what we have, not what we don’t have, we could be successful in that process,’’ he said.
 
Townes' faith in the process finally paid dividends this season, thanks in large part to Thompson. The Nassau, Bahamas, native, who has 55 career singles wins, has a 10-match winning streak and is 17-7 this season.  The season wasn’t without its challenges, however.
 
First, there were NCAA issues and then Price, a team captain, quit the squad. The Lady Bears staggered to a 1-9 start in the wake of those adversities.
 
“Everything looked like it was falling apart,’’ Townes said.
 
That wasn’t what Townes had expected. But despite the downward spiral, Townes’ confidence in the Lady Bears never wavered. His confidence was rewarded and what had been the makings of a disastrous season ended with the Lady Bears hoisting the championship trophy.
   
“The players bought into what I was selling,’’ Townes said of the turnaround. “We started with seven ladies in the fall. I knew we had a team that was really, really strong. I knew that based on the progress we had been making. Even though we won only one more match each year, the team got significantly better each year. I knew this year could be special if we could keep it together mentally.’’
 
The burden of holding the Lady Bears together mentally fell squarely on Townes’ shoulders.

“I knew if we were going to get the ship corrected it started with me,’’ he said. “I had to be consistent, and I needed to continue to sell the same story.’’
 
What was Townes’ story?
 
“I just told them, ‘ladies, don’t think about the record; don’t think about results. I know that’s obviously bothering you. Continue to work hard; continue to move your feet; continue to search for the right ball and we’re going to be successful.’ They bought it; we turned everything around and became a better team.’’
 
Townes became the head of Morgan State’s tennis program in a roundabout manner. He comes from a tennis family. His grandfather Ronald Townes coached the sport; his father, Peter Townes, an All-American tennis player at South Carolina State, also coaches the sport; his sister Cecelia Townes played at Howard, and his younger brother Gabriel Townes played collegiate tennis at Georgia State and Bradley as well professionally.
 
“Tennis is in my blood,’’ Townes said, adding that he has played the game ever since he could walk.

And so is coaching. He has been at it since age 15. When Peter Townes started coaching youth tennis, he would have the younger Townes, who was 13 or 14 hitting with kids he was teaching and giving them pointers on the game.
 
“Coaching has always been my passion,’’ he said, but not on the college level. 
 
“I had no plans of ever being a college coach. I knew some things that my college coach and the coach after him had to go through and just knowing the tennis industry. I had no intention of getting into the college scene.’’
 
Townes’ thinking changed, however, when Thompson texted him that Morgan State’s coach had resigned and asked if he would be interested in coming and helping. The idea appealed to him. After all, it was his alma mater, not just another college program.
 
“Coaching at my alma mater is validation,’’ he said. “I had a decent career, but the team wasn’t successful. That bothered me.’’
 
Morgan State’s men’s team only had one winning record during Townes’ four seasons on the team. That was in 2008. The Bears didn’t have another winning record until 2016, his second season as coach, and they reached the semifinals for the first time ever.
 
“That started it,’’ Townes said. “It really feels amazing. When I was in college I would come up with excuses for losing. I would say ‘we’re in the North and the teams in the Southern Division are already outside. By the time we finish our season, they’re a little bit better. You come up with all these excuses. When I matured and grew up, I realized we have everything to be successful right here in Baltimore, Md.’’’
 
This season, the men’s and women’s programs reached the conference finals in the same year for the first time in program history, and the men were in the finals for the first time ever.
 
The women’s team faced a seemingly unconquerable foe as it makes its NCAA tournament debut. North Carolina, the No. 2 seed, is in the NCAA field for the 20th consecutive year and has a national seed for the 16th time in the last 17 years. The Tar Heels spent a school-record 10 consecutive weeks ranked No. 1 during the regular season, and each of their top six players is ranked in the top 125 in the nation.
 
“We know we’re going to have our hands full,’’ Townes said. “We recognize we’re going to have a challenge. We anticipate it, and we look forward to it. There is no pressure on us. The pressure is on UNC to perform at home. We’re just looking to give them a fight, perform to the best of our ability and see what happens.’’