Becca Porter, right, teamed with senior Melanie Sullivan to win the girls state doubles championship her sophomore year.
Submitted photo
Tennis is a game of returns, and Becca Mattler is happy about the one she made five years ago.
The former Becca Porter, a 2008 Center Grove graduate who was part of a state doubles championship as a 10th-grader, made her way back to the sport she loves to be a coach at Center Grove Middle School Central.
Perusing her qualifications wasn’t necessary. Mattler was All-State for the Trojans at the conclusion of all four of her high school seasons (2005-08) — three times in doubles and then in singles as a senior. She’s the only player in the rich history of CG girls tennis to accomplish that feat.
“I loved that it was an individual sport,” said Mattler, now 34, who began playing as a kindergartener but started taking tennis more seriously around the time she was in fourth grade.
“It was me who succeeded, or it was me who failed. My very first private lesson in fourth grade, my coach looked at me and said, ‘You’re going to win state someday.’ I was really shy, but it gave me a drive. Something to work for.”
As a sophomore, Mattler teamed with senior Melanie Sullivan and capped an undefeated 2006 season in style with a 6-3, 7-5 decision over Carmel’s duo of Jenny Auda and Stacey Evans. It was the second of three Johnson County girls pairings to claim state supremacy, following Franklin’s Katie Bennett and Staci Morrow (1994) and preceding Center Grove’s Cassidy Hardin and Isabella Schoolcraft (2017).
“To win state, everything seems to have to fall into place,” Mattler said. “We got a great draw and peaked at the right time of the season. And I loved having a left-handed partner, because you both can use your forehand volley in the middle of the court.
“That allows you to be more aggressive at the net.”
Due to rain, the 2006 doubles title match was moved indoors to the Indianapolis Racquet Club, presenting a different kind of challenge to the Center Grove pairing, which took the court with a 25-0 record.
“I remember it making me a little nervous because the crowd seemed so much bigger,” Mattler said. “Once you start playing, you slip back into what you’re familiar with. And having Melanie with me was huge because she was so confident and so calm.”
Mattler eventually played at Bellarmine University where, more than a decade after graduating, she remains one of the more frequently typed names in the Knights’ record book. Playing No. 1 singles and doubles throughout her career, Mattler finished with a combined 110 career wins in singles and doubles, a Knights standard at the time (she’s now fifth). The 34 victories Mattler achieved as a Bellarmine junior are 11th all-time for a single season.
She was the Great Lakes Valley Conference freshman of the year in 2009 and league player of the year as a sophomore. Mattler, a health science major who returned for a fifth school year to earn her doctorate of physical therapy, was part of the GLVC All-Academic team all four seasons.
Mattler currently stays busy as a stay-at-home mother, but remains close to tennis as CGMSC’s girls coach. She also assists longtime Center Grove High School girls coach Debby Burton, who leads the middle school boys program.
“It’s a huge benefit,” said Burton, who was Mattler’s coach both in middle school and high school. “It’s so nice to have someone who knows the program, who believes in the program. Becca is very passionate about the sport, and she also has high expectations.”
Mattler and her husband Chris previously lived in St. Louis for four and a half years. The couple has a daughter, Brenna, who turns 3 in August.
It remains to be seen if Brenna eventually follows in mom’s footsteps.
“Tennis is one of my homes,” Mattler said. “But I just want her to find a sport to be passionate about, honestly.”
