Bama?s Svensson Adjusts to College Life, SEC
2/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.- Bianca Svensson's high school was pretty similar to most high schools in the Southeast, with one exception. It had a thriving athletic department, wildly supportive student body and had built a dynasty that included a dozen state championships??four of which Svensson played a major role.
The Marist School in Atlanta, Ga., differed from its basketball-crazed counterparts in one major area, however: Its students weren't wild about what happened on the court.
The most popular sport at this school was tennis.
"The high school was really big and tennis was the biggest women's school sport there," Svensson said. "I know that sounds weird because most people think basketball or softball would be the biggest sport but I think tennis is so popular there because we have won 12 state championships, which falls just short of the national record for state championships won by a single school."
Svensson, who has contributed in her freshman season on the women's tennis team at Alabama in both singles and doubles, was named an All-American as both a sophomore and a senior in high school, and captured a championship each year she was on the team.
The Atlanta native has been playing tennis since she was 5, when she and her dad would venture to her subdivision tennis court and "roll the ball around." Since 7, she has trained under coach Jerry Baskin, who has guided her development through adolescence.
Playing tennis since such an early age not only prepared her for the tough SEC, Svensson said, but the highly-competitive game she would face in high school.
"My most memorable high school tennis memory was in the state championship match my senior year," she said. "The previous three championships were basically handed to us because we were definitely the dominant team, but the last one we had to work for. The match came down to me and Amanda McDowell [now playing for Georgia Tech] at the No. 1 and No. 2 singles slots and we basically made the decision that we were going to be the ones to win it for our team. And we did by winning both of our matches."
Svensson's decision to come to Alabama came much easier than her and her family thought it would. After narrowing her college decision to six schools, Svensson chose to visit Alabama first and, in her words, "fell in love with it."
After Alabama assistant coach Eduardo Rincon showed her around campus, Svensson wasted no time in informing her parents of her decision.
"I called my mom that night to tell her that I wanted to go here," she said, "and her and my dad were in complete shock because they didn't think I would like it here at all."
Despite a 6-0, 6-4 straight-sets win over Furman's Wanjiku Ngaruiya Feb. 9, Svensson's success early in the Alabama season has been on the doubles court, where she and Tide teammate Shelley Godwin have yet to lose at home this spring season and currently ride a four-match winning streak.
Svensson and Godwin's success has been in the making since summer 2006, when the two paired up in a college tournament and Svensson said the pair simply "clicked."
"We played in a college tournament over the summer together, and even though we lost the first match we had so much fun playing together," she said. "It clicked with us; we have opposite personalities so we mesh well. She is always calm and I am louder and energetic. She brings me up when I get down and vice versa. It is a good match for us."
"Our style of play also compliments each other. She likes to play the baseline and I am very aggressive at the net. We set each other up for shots. It has worked out very well for us."
Adjusting to college life one state away from home has been easy for Svensson, despite what she says is her biggest challenge: getting used to cooking on her own. Svensson's chemistry with Godwin has spread to the rest of her Alabama teammates, so much so that the freshman can identify which player is the best dressed (junior Andrea Brenes), and which would be most likely to go on American Idol (sophomore Sofia Ayala).
And while Svensson may be adjusting to dorm life while learning the intricacies of the SEC, she said, there is one thing about her that is not going to change during her tenure at Alabama.
"I only have superstitions when it comes to tennis," she said. "I am really weird about how I have my stuff. When Shelley [Godwin] and I are on the bench I have to be on a certain side all the time, and I have to have my racquets a certain way and my water bottle placed a certain way.
"When I'm on the court and I win the point I have to use the same ball, but if I lose the point I have to change balls. The second serve ball has to be used only for the second serve; it can't become the first serve ball. I can't step on the lines on the court when I walk around. I also bounce the ball a certain number of times before I serve.
"One time I actually wore the same tennis outfit twice," she said. "Don't worry, I washed it."
-UA-
By Scott Latta
