Rebecca Dirksen '00 and Allison Taff '00 come from opposite ends of the country. They have different styles of tennis and they bring different attitudes towards the game. They don't even agree on what clothes to wear in warm weather or who should answer which questions. That seems what you should expect from the tall, blonde girl from California wearing the dress and the talkative, brown-haired Easterner whose long sleeves refuse to admit the sun is shining.
But as the No. 1 doubles team for the Big Green women's tennis team sits down to lunch in the balmy sunshine, they finally agree on something: garden burgers with ketchup and frozen yogurt.
"When I first came to Dartmouth, I didn't think we had anything in common," Dirksen said. "I was a West Coast girl from Palo Alto who was so focused on the individual aspect of the game and there she was, an more conservative East Coast girl. But things just sort of clicked, and we became good friends."
Not only did things click off the court, but on hard courts all over the Ivy League. Since arriving on campus, the duo has stamped their mark all over Dartmouth tennis, ascending to both the top singles positions and the top doubles spot as well. Although you wouldn't know it from their success over the past two seasons, playing doubles did not come about easily for the two players.
"Playing doubles has always suited me well because I love to play up at the net," Taff said. "But I played with a bunch of different people before they paired Rebecca and I together. I didn't think it would work initially, but we've come a long way."
Dirksen credits Taff, as she calls her, for helping to develop more of a team attitude that is necessary when playing doubles.
"Taff grew up playing field hockey and lacrosse as well as tennis, so she was use to the team aspect of sports and knew how to bring it onto the tennis court," Dirksen said. "I grew up playing very competitive singles tennis and never really played doubles. She taught me how to work together with a doubles partner."
Having bonded off the court and now on the court, one would think that the friendship between the two would help propel them to victory. But just as they argue about everything else, the two differ on how their friendship affects their play.
"It's got to be hard for Taff to deal with me because she is such a steady player and my game can be all over the place, from real good to real bad," Dirksen said. "When it's real good and we are both playing well, we have a blast on the court. But when my game is off, I don't know how she puts up with me."
Declining to comment on the latter part of Dirksen's thought, Taff highlighted the clear communication the two have on the court as a result of their friendship.
"We have very good lines of communication, stronger than most other teams we faced. When we get on a roll, like we did against Florida International, it's because we are completely in sync together, and I think that is a result of how much time we spend together."
The two players hope to spend the remaining two years together as doubles partners, hoping to continue the success they have already had and perhaps parlay it into something bigger.
"I would give up the chance of getting an Ivy League title if it meant I could play with Allison all four years of my career," Dirksen said. "Don't get me wrong, I'd love to win and I think we can do better than we can this year, but I'd like to have a chance to do it together."
Taff noted that playing at a school like Dartmouth helps to contribute to the growth the two players have had together as a team.
"Our coaches have really let us blossom together as a team," Taff said. "We know if we make a mistake or lose a match that we will have the opportunity to work it out in the future, that they won't break us up and look for another combination. That's something we might not have been able to experience if we had played at a school where winning was the only thing that was important."
Not that winning isn't important to Dirksen and Taff. As two of the top players on a team comprised of only freshmen and sophomores, the pair know hope to show that you can mix, fun, friendship and success.
"I hope when people come into our program in the next couple of years that they will look at us and will want to strive for that kind of friendship and teamwork," Taff said.
The harmony they hope they portray may not be so obvious as they try to figure out who should talk and continually finish each other's sentences, many times with opposite thoughts of where the sentence was headed. Suddenly, as the garden burgers and yogurt begin to disappear and the topic of conversation once more returns to Taff's refusal to wear short sleeves, one gets the feeling that maybe tennis is all these two friends have in common. But after lunch, left alone in their thoughts about the one thing everybody should know about their friendship, independently they come to the same conclusion: respect.
"I think that the respect I have for Rebecca on the court carries on off the court and vice versa. As a result our friendship has really grown stronger, and same with our doubles," Taff said.
And Rebecca, the envelope please?
"I probably respect Allison more than almost anyone else at Dartmouth," Dirksen said. "On the surface, we may not have much in common, but beneath it all, we are extremely similar."
You can be sure no matter which way the green ball bounces on the court, the two bubbly personalities will continue to bounce toward each other for a long time to come.
