Upcoming Event: Women's Tennis at Florida International on April 11, 2026 at 11 a.m.
11 a.m.
Women's Tennis
at Florida International
Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Just Out
2/20/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 20, 2002
by Caroline Hora
Since our women's team is so small I thought it would be good to first introduce my players a little more personally. Then it's more fun to include their names in this diary. Alena Dvorakova (Czech Republic) came to FAU and was surprised at how much we practice and do fitness. This little, skinny girl had a hard time making it through a long practice let alone run a few miles. Well, now she runs faster than ever, and wins most of her matches by running down her opponents. She is a deceiving player who annoys most of her opponents by few errors and precise shots. Tania Rivera (Puerto Rico) is as solid as ever. I believe she now enjoys practice and results of fitness and the competition. I can always rely on her to be consistent in her training efforts. Along with her teammate Maria, she has increased our Spanish vocabulary, is learning French and has picked up Czech from her teammates. Will we see her as a multi-lingual translator for foreign ambassadors? Maria Aguirre-Gomez (Spain) is so spunky and colorful. I can always count on her to motivate the team. If you ever watch her you can see she is playing with absolute love for the game and competition. Krystel Borg (France) is a nice player who tries hard and fights till the end. When she goes into competition mode..watch out, she is tough. She has a lot of training and growing to do as a player. By the way, she did compete in the junior French Open. Karolina Roubickova (Czech Republic) transferred from TCU and is doing for us what she did for them-WIN. She is 7-0 at number six, even after knee surgery a few months ago. She also has a lot of strengthening to do in the next few years. Karolina is such a talented doubles player that I hope she goes on to play pro after college. Stephanie Beaulieu (Florida) is also a little fighter. This team captain is always motivating the team and cheering them on. Look for some good wins in the future from her. Jessica Burrow (Florida) was a top junior in Florida, attended Missouri until she had hip surgery. She is a walk-on who only wanted to practice with the team for extra exercise. After you see her play you can understand why I try to push her to play matches for us as much as possible. She is a regular in doubles and will play singles whenever she feels ready to. You see, Jessica had hip surgery and suffers from arthritis at such a young age. She is "tough as nails". Lastly, Maya Case (Florida) is a walk-on who was a top player in Florida. She practices with us and competes when we need her.
We are seven matches into our season and I think getting ready for a smooth ride until conference. But you never know... every time I say that the opposite comes true. This is my second year coaching and each day brings new surprises. Especially dealing with 8 young college girls away from home. But the truth is that this young team doesn't't even know just how good they really are. The team is very young, consisting of freshman, sophomores, and 1 junior. Our first match against Miami was tough for several reasons. It was the first match of the season and kinks (nerves) have to be worked out and Miami's bark is bigger than their bite. They are a big, loud, and colorful team that can be intimidating for your first ever college match in the United States. Alena, the little Czech superstar, was able to beat my sister at number one and start her season out great.
We had several other tough matches against top teams (UCF, FIU, FSU) and competed fairly well. There was an upsetting match against UCF when several of the girls lost their composure and got point penalties for foul language. I don't tolerate that and it's nothing running 400's at 6:00AM can't fix. When the girls start believing in themselves and realize how good they are matches with the top teams will be different than "losing a close one". Because the girls are fairly even I will be switching the lineup for almost every match. We have two solid teams this weekend..... so we'll see what happens. I hope I'll be writing
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