Fairfax senior Erin Clark could write a term paper on traffic patterns in the western Fairfax County.
A two-sport athlete navigating through her final semester of high school, Clark has busied herself this spring juggling her two favorite sports, tennis and lacrosse.
The No. 1 singles player for Fairfax’s tennis team and a starting midfielder for the school’s lacrosse team, Clark sometimes spends her evenings racing from one game or practice to the next. It helps that tennis matches start at 3:30 p.m. — on the dot when the Rebels are at home — and lacrosse matches begin around 7. When both teams are at home it’s rarely a problem. When they aren’t? Well, things can get a little hectic.
“But it’s a choice that I made consciously and something that I enjoy doing,” said Clark, who will play tennis at Indiana, where she earned an academic scholarship. “I never could have done it otherwise. I just love being a part of the tennis team so much. I really didn’t want to give that up.”
The hardest transition of the season was a tennis match at Herndon followed by a lacrosse game at Fairfax. And so many events can take a physical toll. Clark has some minor tears in her calf muscles aggravated by the constant stops and starts of tennis. She sat out the Rebels’ Senior Day match on Thursday against Westfield and finished the regular season with an 8-4 record. Clark is also the top goal scorer and ground ball leaderfor Fairfax’s lacrosse team, which finished the regular season 4-7.
