COLUMBIA, Mo. – Incoming freshman Turner Yates is the lone newcomer on the 2015-16 Mizzou Tennis squad, and the Mississippi native provides the Tigers with a fiery competitive drive and a will to succeed after a decorated junior career.  

Yates won the Mississippi state No. 1 singles title as a high school sophomore in 2013 and was inducted into the Mississippi High School Hall of Fame in the same year. She then decided to opt out of high school tennis and focus on the travel circuit, where she earned 2015 Mississippi Tennis Association Player of the Year honors before graduating and coming to Mizzou.

Those accolades are a result of Yates' competitive spirit, which she says developed at a very young age. She picked up a tennis racquet early on because her older sister, Ellie, who recently helped Vanderbilt capture the 2015 National Championship, was already playing at the age of six.

"I've been looking up to Ellie since I was little," Yates said. "I was with her all the time and she was always playing tennis. I was super competitive even when I was young and wanted to be the best at everything so I picked up a racquet to get good at the sport and never put it down."

Yates competed against some of the best junior players in the country as she developed her game growing up in a southern culture with a rich tennis tradition. At Mizzou, she gets a chance to return to familiar territory and compete in the vaunted Southeastern Conference. Her wealth of experience playing in the region is something she hopes can help the Tigers as they rise to the challenge that the SEC presents year in and year out.

"The South was and is consistently super intense when it comes to tennis and hopefully I can bring that intensity with me to Mizzou," Yates said. "Everyone that you play in the SEC will grind out matches and be competitive. Everyone goes above and beyond. That's what we will work toward at Mizzou. We're all capable of playing really competitive SEC tennis, we just have to own that winning mentality."

Yates is already adjusting to life as a student-athlete since arriving on campus less than two weeks ago. Between the resources provided by Mizzou's Total Person Program and the support from her teammates and coaches, she is poised to launch her college career both on the court and in the classroom. Yates will pursue a Journalism degree from the prestigious Missouri School of Journalism and first match experience will be at the Mizzou Invite in Kansas City from Sept. 18-20.

"I'm having a lot fun, I'm excited to be here and my teammates are all looking after me and showing me everything I need to do to keep up with all the responsibilities," Yates said. "Our team has been working really hard and we're already focused on making the most out of an intense fall season so we can be prepared for the spring."