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Country star Maren Morris let fans know she’s returning to the game of tennis after a hiatus, and she asked for help choosing a name for her team. A few phenomenal suggestions were provided, and some made use of very clever word play. In the end, she chose a country-inspired name but also gave a shoutout to a tennis “legend.”

Maren Morris performs onstage in a black tank top and jeans, holding a guitar
Maren Morris | Rich Fury/Getty Images for ACM

Maren Morris asked Twitter for help with a team name

Morris took to Twitter to let fans know she’s preparing to play her first tennis match in two years. Her time off might have had something to do with her pregnancy and emergency c-section in 2020, which prefaced a painful postpartum recovery.

But she said she’s ready to get back in the game now. “It’s going to be TRULY terrible,” she predicted, “but I need help with a team name. Slice Girls has already been taken.”

Suggestions started to pour in, and Morris updated her followers on her options. “Ok, ‘Sets in the City,’ ‘Backhand Music,’ ‘A Serve for Everything,’ and ‘Backhanded Compliments’ feel like they might be frontrunners,” she shared at one point.

But none of those was the winning name. In the end, she and her team picked one that nodded to one of her country music influences.

Maren Morris and team paid tribute to Dolly Parton with their name

When the final decision came, Morris and her tennis team chose a name that honors the one and only Dolly Parton. “Alright,” Morris wrote on Twitter, “after careful consideration and consulting my team, we are THE VOLLEY PARTONS.”

While chatting with Ryan Seacrest on the E! Red Carpet & Award Show for the 2019 Grammys, Morris confessed Parton has influenced in her several ways other than the team name, including being a songwriter and businesswoman.

She even recalled meeting the Queen of Country for the first time. “I was trying to not quote Steel Magnolias at her obnoxiously,” she remembered.

Maren Morris showed her support for tennis star Naomi Osaka

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When tennis star Naomi Osaka tearfully spoke about being jeered by a heckler, Morris turned to Twitter to let her know she had her back — even if she wasn’t part of the country star’s tennis team name.

According to ESPN, someone in the stands shouted, “You suck!” following Osaka’s loss at the BNP Paribas Open. Following the game, she asked to address the crowd.

“To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before, it didn’t really bother me,” she explained. “But [being] heckled here, I watched a video of Venus and Serena [Williams] getting heckled here, and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it.”

“I don’t know why, but it went into my head, and it got replayed a lot,” she went on. “I’m trying not to cry.”

Osaka got lots of loud support from the crowd and Morris, as well. She tweeted, “You’re a legend, Naomi,” along with a retweet of the emotional speech.

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