Parents snickered as she walked out.
On one side of the court stood a nearly full-grown 18-year-old man, facial hair and all. On the other side stood a freckle-faced 12-year-old girl weighing under 100 lbs.
Her name was Ingrid Neel. And even at 12 years old, she easily intimidated her opponents.
“By the time she was 12, everyone knew who she was,” Neel’s childhood coach Brian Christiansen said. “Ingrid was the girl who was always hitting at the top of the net, and you’ve got to figure out a way to get past her.”
Having already beaten most of the girls in her hometown of Rochester, Minnesota, Neel’s parents wanted to challenge her. They approached her with the idea of playing for Mayo High School’s boy’s team. Neel immediately said yes.
“I said, ‘It’s possible, but you’re going to have to be really great,’” said Hildy Neel, Ingrid’s mother. “And Ingrid turned to me and said, ‘Well, I can do that.’”
Drowning in a boy’s uniform, the seventh-grader helped lead the Spartans’ tennis team to its first state championship.
While she looked like the outsider on the team, this was nothing new for Neel. She’s always been different. Whether it was the unusually high amount of tournaments she played as a kid or her unconventional style of playing at the net, she was never afraid to stand out. And she always did.
Even playing on the No. 1 team in the country at the University of Florida, Neel has continued to differentiate herself from the other Gators.
Neel started playing tennis when she was 4. After three years, she discovered her preferred method of improving: competition. Neel was 7 when she traveled to Texas to play in her first tournament. Although she lost both matches, she was inspired to work harder, play tougher and compete more.
At 10 years old, Neel realized that tennis was her passion. After coming close to winning a tournament in Croatia, Neel traveled to an individual tournament in France where she got revenge. By beating the girl she lost to in Croatia, Neel won the individual tournament title. That was when Christiansen turned to her parents and told them he would help Neel take this as far as she wanted to.
Neel said that this was the moment where she, her parents and her coaches all realized how special a tennis player she was.
For the next three years, she played in local and national tournaments and developed her game. At 11, Neel attracted the attention of seven-time Grand Slam winner John McEnroe, who said he saw a lot of himself in her. He even asked her to join him at his academy in New York. Although she visited and challenged Johnny Mac when she played him, Neel ultimately declined the offer.
Instead, she decided to work with famed coach Nick Bollettieri at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. She stayed there for three years, expanding her skill set by balancing her play at the net with a more conservative approach, before returning to tournament play at 16.
Neel’s first big tournament win came in 2015 in Jonesville, Florida, where she won a $10,000 singles competition. This was the first time Roland Thornqvist, the coach of UF’s women’s tennis team, saw her. It didn’t take him long to see how good she was.
“This little kid with sunglasses who came to (the) net on play. It was just like, ‘Wow, I’ve got to watch this,’” he said. “That’s the moment I knew I wanted her on the team. You could see the genius in her.”
After what Neel described as an easy recruiting process, the 18-year-old committed to her first-choice program and became a Gator. Despite being one of the best players in the country, Neel continued to set herself apart. Just look at UF’s roster. In an ocean of experienced, veteran upperclassmen, Neel, a freshman, was the only underclassman. But she embraced the challenge.
Players and coaches described her transition on the team as seamless. Neel says the older players accepted her with ease, and she began learning from them instantly.
“I feel bad for freshmen who don’t have the opportunity to play with upperclassmen because the team is just so mature,” Neel said. “Everyone is so helpful and nice, and I felt really taken under their wings.”
Thornqvist didn’t hesitate to get Neel started. Only a week after she enrolled at UF, she was one of four Gators selected to compete in the Freeman Memorial Championships in Las Vegas. Playing in her first collegiate tournament against competition from six top-25 schools, Neel advanced to the semifinals — farther than any other Gator in the tournament.
Since then, it’s been nothing but dominance for the rookie. Quickly rising to Florida’s No. 2 spot in singles and No. 1 in doubles alongside junior Anna Danilina, Neel has continued to differentiate herself. Through an aggressive style of play, combining her crushing overhead ability, touch on volley and fearlessness at the net, Neel has dominated her opponents all season by wearing them down.
Perhaps the shining moment of her young college career came in February at the National Indoor Championships. Facing her childhood best friend and fellow Rochester native, Neel out-battled North Carolina’s Jessie Aney 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to clinch and give the Gators their first National Indoor title since 1999.
Since then, Neel has been a critical part of Florida’s success. Boasting a 14-3 singles record and a 16-4 doubles record, Thornqvist said there’s no way the Gators would be ranked No. 1 without Neel, adding that her attitude has affected the entire team.
“She doesn’t have to lead because we have leadership, but my goodness she’s just happy every day,” he said. “She helps everybody. Coming in as a freshman and the only freshman, it’s not an easy thing to do. But boy, she’s got one of the best attitudes.”
Thornqvist said that he sees Neel as the player with the most potential to grow. He expects her pace of play to increase as she spends more time training and lifting weights.
But no matter where Neel’s career is headed, one thing is sure: Neel will continue to be her own kind of player. It’s what she’s always done. It’s what made her unique. And it’s something she’ll never change.
“I always wanted to stay true to that,” Neel said. “I’ve always wanted to be different and dare to be something that people don’t think can actually work.”
Contact Spencer Thompson at sthompson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @spencemthompson.
UF's Ingrid Neel hits a backhand during Florida's 4-2 win against Oklahoma State on Feb. 18, 2017, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
