Hannah Stone is playing her 2011-12 women's tennis season in memory of teammate Jovana Vasic, who was killed in a car accident in August.

It was the morning of Aug. 24, 2011 and two of the Northern Arizona women's tennis team's newest recruits, one from California and one from Florida, were texting each other in anticipation of finally starting their Lumberjack tennis careers together.

Two recruits from opposite ends of the country would finally be able to see each other for the first time after striking up a friendship on their recruiting trips to the Mountain campus in February. And then everything changed.

Jovana Vasic, a transfer from St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, Fla., was killed in a car crash while driving through Wheeler County in Texas with her father on her way to Flagstaff. Just hours before the fatal accident that took Vasic's life that morning, Vasic and freshman Hannah Stone were talking through texts just as they had been since they first met earlier in the year.

"My dad drove me up on Wednesday the 24th and I was texting her in the morning," Stone said. "Then she stopped texting me around 9 a.m. and I thought maybe her phone died because I knew she was already in Oklahoma or something."

Stone said she arrived in Flagstaff near 10 p.m., and was waiting for a call from Vasic which she never received.

"I went on Facebook to see if she posted anything on there," Stone said. "When I saw all of these 'Rest in Peace' posts from her close friends, I just broke down."

After going their separate ways following their recruiting trips, the Stone and Vasic planned to meet up in Los Angeles one time when Vasic was there with her family, but the timing didn't work out. As a result, their budding friendship grew through text messages, so the anticipation of seeing each other in months was at an all-time high.

"We really got close over the phone. Our last night here (in February), we got each others' numbers and she told me 'If I go here, you better go here'," Stone said. "When we both committed, we were really stoked."

Stone added that the pair had a good long-distance relationship and both were looking forward to getting to spend some time together in person.

Stone, a native of Temecula, Calif., considered schools in her home state such as San Jose State and Loyola Marymount in addition to NAU during the recruiting process. But after taking her recruiting trip here, she committed right away.

"NAU was one of my last visits and I really liked the area and the school was really nice," Stone, a public relations major, said. "I took a tour of the Communications building and I loved it."

She added that the tennis program was also a big draw.

"I loved Coach (Kim) Bruno's coaching style and her personality," she said, "plus I loved the girls; they were fun off the court, but serious on the court."

Stone came into the women's tennis program as a highly accomplished high school player. A team captain and all-league selection at Great Oak High School, Stone was a top-60 ranked player in Southern California. As a sophomore, she helped lead her team to the CIF quarterfinals.

This fall, Stone made an immediate impression on the team, posting eight singles victories, tied for tops on the team with fellow freshman Johanna Vang, through the team's first six tournaments. She also has seven doubles wins to her name, partnering with both juniors Ghizelene Doballah and Alice Pacaut on different occasions.

"I saw her attitude and her cool, fun personality that people want to be around when I was recruiting her," Bruno said. "But she's come in and played even better tennis than I expected, which is a bonus."

Most impressively among her early success this fall, Stone advanced to the third round of the main draw at the ITA Mountain Regional Championships, before falling to the fifth-seeded player in the tournament. Stone, along with Ghizelene Doballah, also claimed the team's only doubles victory at the tournament in her first taste of regional competition.

"I was playing really well at the tournament and my focus level really took a jump," Stone said. "Making it to the third round was really cool. I felt comfortable on the court and I was in my zone and it really pumped me up."

Going into the team's main season in the spring, Bruno will be counting on Stone to help replace four graduating seniors from last season's team that reached the Big Sky championship match for the sixth consecutive year.

"My expectations of her grow daily," Bruno said. "She has the ability to be one of our greatest team leaders and because she's one of our most competitive kids, she'll raise our level of competition as a team as a freshman."

All of the success and expectations continue despite the tragedy that Stone endured just days before the semester started. Even though Stone and Vasic, who would've been a junior at NAU this year, expected to be teammates over the next two years, Stone knows that her fallen teammate is with her on the court, making the grieving process an easier one to undergo.

"Jovana was always happy," Stone said. "Anytime I would say something negative, she would tell me happy thoughts. Her attitude was very contagious. During matches, I'm playing for her now.

Editor's Note: This feature story was provided by the Northern Arizona University Sports Information Department.