Sarah Summerfield’s journey to Vicksburg has been one with a lot of miles between stops.

Try thousands of miles.

The New Jersey native and University of Wyoming career singles victory leader took over as the newly rebranded Vicksburg Raquet Club’s new professional this week.

She began her journey in her hometown of Chester, played college tennis for five years in Laramie, where she was a two-time All-Mountain West selection and, thanks to her boyfriend’s job at the Engineer Research and Development Center, now has a chance to bring her brand of tennis instruction to Vicksburg.

“We lucked out with this opening,” Summerfield said. “It’s definitely different, going from New Jersey to Wyoming to here.”

Now she is going to try to impart those years of experience as collegiate player to her students. She will be offering programs for children and adults that includes drills for both adult and high school players, tennis camps and cardio tennis drills for adults on Tuesday evenings.

Summerfield, who has worked as an instructor at tennis camps before, is excited about building an instructional program that also includes private one-on-one lessons.

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Summerfield said. “I’ve always had a goal of teaching tennis at a country club. My main focus is just helping people enjoy the game and improve each day.”

It wasn’t the first big move that Summerfield has made. After high school in Chester, which is near Morristown, she took a chance on Wyoming’s tennis program, which she never regretted.

“I was recruited by the coach (then-coach Kristen Hall) and I really liked the school and the environment there,” Summerfield said. “It turned out to be a really great option for me. I really enjoyed it there.”

Her career started off well. She was the school’s third freshman to be named all-conference and she went 7-4 in her singles matches, winning six out of her final eight.

But she sustained an ACL tear in her left knee during her sophomore year that required six months of

rehabiliation. With the injury, she was forced to skip fall season. Her return in the spring was impressive, as she went 14-7 and 5-3 in conference play.

It made all of the pain of rehab and the worry about whether her knee would hold up all worth it.

“It was tough,” Summerfield said. “It was a pretty big drawback. I had to go out and play and not think about the pain.”

After going 18-17 during her junior year, she had one more career milestone as a senior. Already up to fifth on the all-time school singles list with 56 career singles wins, she needed nine more victories to become the school’s all-time leader.

She defeated North Dakota’s Katie Collison for the milestone and finished her career with 76 singles wins, the most in school history.

“It was a great honor for me,” Summerfield said of her historic feat.