Have racquet, will travel.
When Sara Mata joined the Neuqua Valley tennis team this fall, she was following in her older sister’s footsteps.
She just had to cross an ocean to get here.
Mata, a sophomore, arrived in Naperville in August as an exchange student from Spain.
Neuqua and its tennis program were a natural home. Mata’s older sister, Adriana, was a state doubles qualifier last season during her only year on the Wildcats.
“My sister came here and had a very good experience,” Mata said. “I want to repeat it.”
Mata fits right in with a young Neuqua team.
Neuqua graduated six players after winning its second straight sectional championship and qualifying one singles and two doubles for state. Sara Mata’s one of six sophomores in a group that includes returning doubles qualifier Hannah Beck.
New country, new school. Doubles tennis is new to Mata, too.
Mata, who is from a small town just outside Barcelona, only played singles competitively in Spain. She has, though, been paired with fellow sophomore Charlotte Harland on Neuqua’s No. 2 doubles team.
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“I feel better about it,” Mata said. “Doubles, there’s less pressure on you. In doubles you can talk to your partner when you have problems.”
Still, it’s an adjustment. Singles tennis, particularly on the clay courts prevalent in Mata’s native Spain, is played more on the baseline.
Doubles requires more of a serve-and-volley game.
Mata is hesitant coming to the net, but her coach thinks she has natural ability to do so.
“Sometimes with girls going to the net is like pulling teeth,” Neuqua coach Trudy Bennorth said. “Sara wasn’t too sure about this net thing but she has awesome reactions. She’s much better than she thinks she is.”
Mata already has a good bond with her doubles partner.
When Sara visited her sister last year, she met Harland. The two kept up on Instagram.
“It’s nice having another face on the team, since we lost a lot of girls,” said Harland, who played singles as a freshman. “We’re pretty close friends now.”
Mata thinks her right hand is her best hand, and she needs to improve her serve and her left hand.
Bennorth figures she’s bound to improve.
“Sara is very bubbly, but intense, is a good athlete and she listens well,” Bennorth said. “Sometimes she doesn’t understand the words but I think I’ll enjoy her. It seems like a really nice family.”
The family is well-versed with traveling abroad.
Mata’s dad went to school one year in Iowa. Her cousin is currently doing an exchange year in Georgia.
Playing high school tennis, though, is a unique experience for Mata.
In Europe, athletics is based in clubs, rather than schools. Mata travels 30 minutes three times a week to her club in Spain.
“Here the coach gives you more instruction,” Mata said. “It’s different, but it’s still tennis. You throw the ball and you hit the ball.”
Her newest experience might have nothing to do with tennis.
Mata’s dad played American-style football in Spain, but Friday night games are an unfamiliar phenomenon.
That will change.
“I didn’t realize it was so popular,” Mata said. “I want to watch American football. I think it is a typical tradition in America. The girls told me everybody goes to games.”
Joshua Welge is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun.