TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

This year you were a member of the National Girls and Women in Sports Day steering committee and you were also chosen as the featured Varsity Student-Athlete Speaker. Talk a little bit about UB’s planned celebration on Feb. 21 and why NGWSD is so important.

The celebration is basically to celebrate girls and women participating in athletics, to promote women’s sports and just to draw a little bit of attention to females participating in athletics, to draw attention to the fact that we’re here, we’re working hard and we’re doing out best.

You are the president of the student-athlete group “Bridge”. What is the purpose of this group and how has it evolved during your time at UB?

Tyra Goodgain (former Academic Advisor) started it with student-athletes and I decided to join my sophomore year and its purpose is to promote unity among student-athletes because over the years, there have been a lot of new international student-athletes and it’s just to be a little more united and to get to know each other a little more.

You are majoring in “Journalism and World Affairs” with a 3.73 GPA. Describe a bit what that major entails.

I wanted to do journalism when I came here to UB, but UB doesn’t have a journalism program, so I decided to do it my own way and I put the world affairs in, one of my professors actually came up with the idea for world affairs. I like international relations, I like everything that has to do with diplomatic relations, traveling, different countries, cultures and people told me that it’s good when you want to do journalism that you have an idea about some area and I’m very interested in politics and what’s going on in the world so I thought I would take some classes in that area.

Last season, the women’s tennis team made it to the MAC finals. How do you expect to compete in the MAC this year and what team do you think will be the toughest to beat?

Last year was great, but this year we are expecting to do even better. We definitely improved a lot since last year and we want to go all the way this year. Our toughest opponent is Western Michigan, they beat us last year in the finals, but this year it’s our turn.

Your former teammate Kristen Ortman joined the women’s tennis coaching staff this season as an assistant coach. How has her role changed and is it hard to adapt to her as a coach rather than a teammate?

I don’t think it’s hard to adapt to her as a coach because she knows a lot about tennis, she’s a great person. It is good to have someone sitting at the bench who knows exactly how you feel when you’re out there. She’s been there, she knows that you’re nervous, she knows what emotions come up during the match and she helps us a lot. It’s been great to have her as a coach. She’s great to have around.

What is it like to be a member of a team with players from seven different countries?

I love it, its very entertaining, on the one hand, because different mentalities, different way of saying things, different way of doing things but you learn a lot and I’ve learned a lot about different countries, different cultures and you grow as a person.

Who is your favorite professional tennis player to watch and why?

Well, I love Marat Safin, mostly because of his looks. I just started to like watching Serena (Williams) because at this last Australian Open, she did amazing. She’s such a fighter that it’s very encouraging, you want to just go out there and do it yourself.

You are typically in both the singles lineup and the doubles lineup. Do you prefer one over the other?

I love both. It’s a different game when you play doubles, and you have a partner out there so sometimes it feels good because you’re not alone out there. I like both though, it’s fun to play both.

Following your graduation in May, do you have plans to return to your native Austria?

I know that I will go home for the summer and work at home. I got an internship in Washington, D.C. at the Austrian Embassy for the fall and I will be there from September through December and then we’ll see.

What has been your favorite moment as a UB student-athlete?

It was probably winning against Miami (OH) at last year’s MAC Championships. We wanted to go to the finals, that was our goal and it was great. Andreea (Novaceanu) our No.1 player, she always finished first, and I finished and we just pumped our fists against each other. It was a great moment, it was very exciting.

“The 10 Questions With…” feature is compiled by Jackie O’Brien.