Four Cal Poly women’s tennis seniors are accustomed to aces, on and off the court.
Not only are they nationally ranked tennis players, Brittany Blalock, Suzie Matzenauer, Steffi Wong and Diane Filip all earned 3.8 cumulative GPAs last quarter.
Shannon Stephens, director of academic services for Cal Poly athletics, said even though it is not unknown for student athletes to achieve a high GPA, the girls were collectively a full grade point above the average. Cal Poly currently has about 560 intercollegiate athletes.
Sports psychologist Jeff Troesch has worked with all four of the girls during their careers at Cal Poly.
“This has to do with the drive and the motivation levels of these four individuals,” Troesh said. “They want to be successful, at everything they do. And they’ve been putting in the work.”
Hard work wasn’t the only challenge for the international players in the group. Wong, from Canada, and Filip, from Denmark, joined as freshmen and had to adjust to the nuances of not only life as college students, but life in a new country as well.
“It’s weird because you have two different lives almost,” Wong said. “But every year it’s easier and easier.”
Wong is studying biomedical engineering and considering medical school. She won last year’s Big West Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year award. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Wong considered going to several universities before choosing Cal Poly.
“I was looking around at different schools in California,” Wong said. “And Hugh (Bream, Cal Poly’s head women’s tennis coach) was looking for more players. This one definitely was my favorite. I’m so glad I picked here.”
For Filip, from Viborg Denmark, the difference in cultures was even more pronounced. While it was not the first time she had been away from home, it was an adjustment.
“It was pretty tough the first two months. It was hard getting used to not just the U.S., but college culture, team culture,” said Filip, who is studying international business with a minor in sustainable business. “And I had to take business law the first year. I didn’t understand anything. I was like ‘dictionary, paper, dictionary, paper.’ But I ended up getting an ‘A’.”
Filip started playing tennis at age 7, but said she didn’t focus on it until she got older.
“Tennis wasn’t that big in Denmark,” Filip said. “It still isn’t.”
At the age of 12, she began traveling with the Danish national team, and played with them for almost five years.
“I won the Danish national championships,” Filip said. “But it’s not like winning in America. Denmark is a small country.”
While Wong and Filip traveled far to play tennis at Cal Poly, Blalock calls Palm Springs home, close enough to “whip home for the weekend.” Blalock, a business administration senior, started playing competitively when she was 9 years old.
She is nationally ranked in both singles and doubles, and said that balancing grades and tennis has taught her, primarily, to manage time better. But even if things do get a little crunched sometimes, Blalock can handle it.
“I tend to play better under pressure, when people are watching,” Blalock said. “I like pressure.”
Matzenauer, a communications senior, joined the team as a junior. A former star of the Northwestern University women’s team, Matzenauer said she enjoys the balance between tennis, academics and free time she’s found at Cal Poly. She also said that the team chemistry is unusually good this year.
“This year, since it’s my last year, I have a totally different perspective on tennis and life in general,” Wong said. “I want to enjoy this year. Before, the first few years, I used to get nervous before a match. But now I get excited. And it’s made me so much better. It’s kind of like an upward cycle.”
Bream said that he’s enjoyed working with the seniors the past few years.
“I think, even more than their success on the court and in the classroom, they’re really just great people,” he said. “We enjoy being around them, and they’re really setting the bar high for this new group of recruits coming in.”