Serving Up a Legacy

Anthony Brissett wanted an anniversary gift with a long shelf life that he and wife Annette could enjoy. Something that didn’t wither in a vase and die within days. So, he booked a surprise overnight trip to the Downtown Club at the Met and a tennis lesson for the two of them. Told his wife to pack shorts and a T-shirt. 

Once they stepped onto the court, sparks flew. They wanted more of it. One lesson led to another, then another, the way a rally continues when neither player wants it to end. Saturdays became stitched with serves, improving their game. But then, what to do with two young daughters? Daycare for Ella and Chloe had been the solution, until someone casually suggested: Might the girls enjoy tennis, too?

“Someone said, ‘There’s a kids’ program.’ That’s what started this whole thing,” says Anthony.

The sisters traded toys for grips and forehands, learning to love the sweet pop of balls on strings. 

“Turns out they really liked it,” their father deadpans.

Chloe’s power and precision on the court serves her well. Her focus and grit led to Washington University’s first-ever NCAA women tennis championship in 2025.

Game. Set. Legacy.

Yes, Ella, now 22, and sister Chloe, 19, really took to tennis. 

Ella, a biology major who graduated in May from Claremont McKenna College, was a cornerstone of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women's tennis program, leading her team to back-to-back NCAA Division III national championships, in 2022 and 2023. And she guided her team to victory in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Team Indoor Championship in 2024. 

Chloe, a sophomore, is carving her own path at Washington University in St. Louis, clinching a NCAA Division III championship title last May during her freshman season, the college’s first ever in women’s tennis. Her story is wide open for many more chapters.

Two daughters, two champions, two universities. Launched by one anniversary surprise. “And some really good coaching,” says Ella. 

“They made history. I don’t know anybody who has won this many NCAA titles in one family. I’ve worked with almost a thousand players, and I’ve never seen this kind of success,” says tennis coach Josip Juric, who took them under his wing at a young age, cultivating a development plan. “For Houston, what they’ve achieved is huge. But for their family, it’s almost unbelievable.”

Ella, a graduate of Claremont McKenna, rejoices at the 2022 NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis Championship, helping her team clinch the title for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps tennis program. Her team leadership led to a second NCAA championship in 2023. And she guided her team to victory in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Team Indoor Championship in 2024. (Photo: Manuela Davies/USTA)

The girls have completely different playing styles. Ella is a lefty, Chloe a righty, he says. He agrees with Ella’s description of herself as “scrappy,” And Chloe, he says, is a force on the court. Strong. “Everything about their game is different, to be honest, but it’s the same result.”

Juric was their private coach from pre-pubescent age through their high school years at The Kinkaid School, taking them to his home country of Croatia one summer to train. “The newspapers in Croatia wrote about Ella and Chloe, kind of comparing them to Serena and Venus,” he says of the famous Williams sisters. 

“People contact me these days, asking about Ella and Chloe specifically because of their success. It’s not a coincidence that these two girls have both won NCAA championships. It’s been a project for many years of them delivering. And they’re also high achievers in academics and have an amazing, supportive family. Two amazing ladies.” 

Todd Folsom, director of King Daddy Sports, has coached the girls since their early days. He fondly nicknamed them Umbrella for Ella – half Rihanna lyric, half affectionate tease – and Chlo Bear for Chloe. “She was called that by her mom quite a bit, so I sort of latched onto that.

“They started playing tennis with our group and some of our coaches when they were getting started and stayed with us all through high school,” he recalls. “Highly motivated, talented kids. You know, it takes a village for these kids to have this kind of success, and they have certainly had that with both parents being so supportive. Umbrella winning a couple of national championships and all those accolades that she’s had, it’s fantastic. And Chloe is following those same steps, trying to fill those same shoes. I mean, she won a championship her freshman year. They’re just remarkable girls. A remarkable family.”

Talk is flowing around the Brissett breakfast table on a recent day. Their Havanese pup, Lola – affectionally called Lola Falana – sprints about the room with her floofy plume of a tail like a tiny Cuban showgirl. Yeah, Ella and Chloe might have their accomplishments but look at me.

Sisters Chloe (left) and Ella, representing their colleges in attire, have been comfortable on the court since young girls, taking lessons on Saturdays while their parents played. (Photo: hartphoto.com)

Lola is the only diva in the household. 

When the sisters talk of championships and goals yet to be met, there’s a grounding set in faith, family, and purpose. Personal goals are important, but the family lessons off the court – discipline, balance, service and generosity – have shaped them as much as any coach or practice, they say.

“Our dad being a physician and mom being a psychologist, those are careers rooted in service. I think that’s made a big impression for me and Chloe and for our future careers and how we want to lead our lives,” says Ella. The pre-med graduate, bound for medical school in the fall, earned the 2024-25 National Women's Sport Student-Athlete of the Year Award from the Division III Commissioners Association (D3CA). In addition to athletic accomplishments, she’s garnered several scholastic and service-related awards during her tennis career.  

Among them, the Arthur Ashe Jr. Leadership and Sportsmanship Award for college women's tennis, Division III, presented by the ITA. It honors student-athletes who excel in tennis, academics, leadership, and community service, recognizing outstanding character and sportsmanship.

Ella also won the ITA’s Ann Lebedeff leadership award, named after revered college tennis coach and educator, Dr. Ann Lebedeff, a good friend of tennis icon Billie Jean King. The award honors a recent college graduate who demonstrated excellence on and off the court, and was a leader for their team, campus, and community. The award noted Ella’s founding of the Women Empowerment in Sports Club that linked female student-athletes on campus to the broader community. She and other members organized alumni panels and National Girls and Women in Sports Day activities aimed at empowering young girls.

“I was honored to give a speech in New York for those two awards,” Ella says. 

The Phi Beta Kappa graduate also won the Division III NCAA Impact Award for service beyond athletics. The Impact Award celebrates the best of college athletics by honoring one exceptional male and one exceptional female senior student-athlete from each division. 

“It’s been very exciting and almost surreal, and I felt honored with every step in these awards. And Chloe is out there doing her thing, making a difference with her team. Seeing her win the national championship… I was cheering as if it was my team out there!”

Ella wears a medal from early tennis days, hints of the NCAA champion she’d later become.

Chloe is making her own mark in both tennis and scholastics. Besides winning a championship, she’s an all-academic champion, attending Washington University’s Olin Business School. 

“What Chloe has shown over the past 24 months is that tennis has taught her a lot of perseverance, a lot of grit, a lot of humbleness and humility. These are things I see shine,” says Anthony. “And those are things Ella was rewarded for. We are so proud of them both and their uniqueness and how they’ve embraced it all.”

Chloe has set her own path. She’s interviewing now for internships in investment banking and will be working for a private equity firm in New York this summer. Born to crunch numbers and balance sheets, she cut her teeth as a high school student at Kinkaid’s Gordy Family Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Finance, navigating internships before most teens even unpack their college dorms. 

The tenacious sort is playing the long game: in a field where firms recruit not for next summer, but the summer after, Chloe is interviewing for a career that demands patience, foresight, and the same tenacity that made her a champion on the tennis court. 

Ella is currently interviewing for medical school. But in the meantime, she’s doing a fellowship with Duke University’s Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies as part of a laboratory team designing a user-friendly device for cervical cancer screening. 

“I would say the competitive side of tennis is mostly behind me,” says Ella, who’d planned to take a solid break from having a racket as an appendage. “Then this guy on the bus saw my Claremont jacket and he’d trained there. He said, ‘Did you play on their team? You should join the Duke club tennis.’”

It’s a fun way to scratch that itch, she says of the student-run group.  “I joined within a week of being there.”

The sisters’ curiosity for the world – and relentless drive to make a difference – comes naturally from parents who have always modeled a life in motion: traveling across continents to teach and heal, rolling up their sleeves to serve communities in need, balancing careers with acts of generosity. Showing that every challenge is an opportunity to do good. 

Their father, a plastic surgeon, has traveled overseas with a group called Face the Future, teaching doctors critical procedures in fragile healthcare systems. “We travel to all parts of the world to provide healthcare and to build capacity and sustainability, building upon the abilities and capabilities of healthcare providers, doctors, nurses, and administrators,” he says.

“We work with all those folks to help improve upon their healthcare system.  And sustainability means being able to essentially build the capacity, then back away. In other words, don’t hand out fish, you teach them how to fish,” he says of the Biblical proverb. 

Tiny Chloe, towering racket: the first of many showdowns to come, leading to a NCAA champion.

Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, he has returned repeatedly to stitch faces disfigured by conflict. He’s done the same in other countries, such as in Rwanda, after the genocide. 

Their mother, a clinical psychologist, has counseled victims of tragedy, survivors of hurricanes, offering guidance in moments of trauma. 

“I think the girls give a lot of credit to their mother who has really been a steadfast stalwart of the family, making sure they were encouraged, mentored, and supported,” says Anthony. 

“It’s a whole family effort,” Annette interjects. “Anthony is a master at instilling confidence in their growth.”

More than two decades ago, the couple started a church with 40 other founding members, then a free clinic – Casa El Buen Samaritano (House of the Good Samaritan) – meeting the needs of underserved populations in the shadow of the world-renowned Texas Medical Center. 

“It just seemed to be a calling,” says Anthony, the clinic’s medical director. “The opportunity presented itself and the only bad opportunity is a missed opportunity. And then we saw a real need for the clinic. When I look out our window here at home, I see the largest medical center in the world, and in its shadows are hundreds of thousands of people who have no access to care. So how in good conscience can we as a family have some of the best care in the world and not want the same for others?”

Tennis is more fun when you share it with a sister. Siblings Ella and Chloe have fun on and off the court, hamming it up with smiles and laughter.

As young girls, Ella and Chloe recall seeing their dad off to the clinic every Tuesday and Thursday evening. Soon, the sisters were volunteering there as well, watching patients’ children. Then, as older teens, updating medical charts and taking vitals.

They completed their Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouts, at the clinic. Ella developed a mindfulness program to teach patients how to manage anxiety and mental health. “Just as important as managing physical health. It affects it,” she says.

Chloe created a recipe program for patients, transforming cultural preferences into healthy meals. “That was important to me, that these patients knew a way that benefited them, to help with their physical being. Diabetes and heart disease is one of the main disparities we saw at the clinic. As an athlete I wanted to make sure that was addressed,” she explains.

Watching their parents guide and serve has been a blueprint for curiosity and courage and created their drive to make a difference, the sisters agree. It showed them that life isn’t measured in awards or titles, but in the tangible impact you can make in the lives of others.

“We couldn’t be prouder of them,” says Annette, who laughs at something she’s learned from her daughters.

“I learned that I’m a bit competitive!”

With an empty nest, she’s embraced tennis more, joining a league and discovering that the court has more to teach her. “I ask them for tips,” she says of her collegiate champions. “It’s nice to have that resource.”

And she and Anthony still take lessons together. But he’s more about the camaraderie and fun, about keeping active. 

“No. I’m not competitive,” he says. “I compete with myself every day as it is.  I’ll leave that to the women in the house.”