Mackie McDonald is just about done with his freshman year of college. Not too long ago, though, there was much speculation about whether Mackie would play college tennis or choose to turn pro instead. As he shared with me in this short interview, he feels he made the right decision choosing to play for the UCLA Bruins.

Mackie isn’t the first in his family to be a student-athlete at UCLA. His older sister, Dana, competes on UCLA’s gymnastics team. Her presence in Westwood was a pretty big factor in his desire to be a Bruin, too. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that tennis coaches Billy Martin and Grant Chen are beyond happy to have him on the team. Not only did Mackie start for the Bruins in both singles and doubles his freshman year, but he also helped lead the team to the semifinals of the NCAA Championships (Mackie didn’t drop a set the entire tournament!) and made it to the quarters of the individual tournament as well.