Crossing the net and crushing borders

For Plamena Kurteva, tennis was not always the No. 1 sport in her heart.

"Actually, I'm not from an athletic background, but my brother played soccer," Kurteva said. "We have four years different--he's older than me--so I was looking up to him."

She wanted to follow in her brother Georgi's footsteps, but there were cultural norms blocking her. Kurteva, a junior on Auburn's women's tennis team, is from Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

"Soccer in Bulgaria is not for girls," Kurteva said.

Growing up, all Kurteva could do was watch her brother play the sport she loved more than any other.

"Right next to the soccer facility there were tennis courts; I tried it a few times and I loved it," Kurteva said. "And I was 5 years old when I first started playing tennis, so it's a lot of years already playing."

The sport came easily to her, and her parents, local farmers in Bulgaria, encouraged her to pursue the new hobby.

"They both loved us doing athletics since they never did athletic," Kurteva said. "They were encouraging both of us to do well. We both did pretty good."

Her tennis skills encouraged Kurteva's parents to send her to the Schiller International School in Barcelona, Spain, at age 14.

Spain's more moderate temperatures certainly made for a better training climate, but the country presented its own difficulties.

Kurteva spoke neither Spanish nor English when she moved to Spain, and for the first two of five years she was there, she trained as hard at linguistics as she did at tennis. She is now fluent in both languages.

Kurteva ultimately decided to play tennis in the U.S.

"While I was in Spain I heard more about college tennis, and a few of my friends went to play tennis in college (in the U.S.) ... and they all loved it so I decided to look for colleges," Kurteva said.

Kurteva ended up at Auburn thanks to fellow Bulgarian and former tennis player Fani Chifchieva.

"I got in contact with her and she told me all the great things about Auburn athletics," Kurteva said. "I was lucky to find out about Auburn."

Women's tennis coach Lauren Meisner said this method of discovery is common for international athletes.

"It's very common where you'll have a girl from a country be not so much recruited by the other girl, but they're friends and they talk," Meisner said. "So a lot of international girls are more comfortable ... when (they) know that there's other people they may know or there's shared interest with your countries."

Kurteva's doubles partner, junior Paulina Schippers, is from Guatemala and noticed the differences between her and Kurteva's styles due to Kurteva growing up playing on clay courts.

Despite their technical differences, Kurteva and Schippers enjoy sharing one common bond: the Spanish language.

"We never talk in English," Schippers said with a laugh. "We talk to each other in English when we're around the team, just so everyone understands, but it's really weird. I don't like to talk to her in English."

Kurteva has certainly bought into the team mentality that she said was lacking in Spain. Whether yelling "vamos!"--Spanish for "let's go!"--across the courts to Schippers, or shouting "Go Tigers" to her other teammates, Kurteva is always supporting her team.

"It's awesome because sometimes you struggle, you're tired, but there is always at least one of your teammates to pump you up, to tell some funny joke that you're going to laugh at," Kurteva said. "And then you can perform better; you can practice better; you have more motivation to do well."

It is that personal bond which Kurteva loves about the game.

"I have had great moments while I was on the team," Kurteva said, "but one of the good, good days for me just happened against Southern Methodist University. I had a very close match and all my teammates were right next to me and they were all cheering on for me.

"It was just great to see them and very inspiring. It was a great experience and definitely one of the matches that I will remember for the rest of my life."