As the fall tennis season comes to a close, we decided to shine a special focus on its sophomore rising star, Anna Bintarovskaya. Anna is a force to be reckoned with on the tennis court. During her freshman year she made the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) All-Conference team, won CCAC Freshman of the Year, CCAC Player of the Year and if that wasn’t enough, she also made the NAIA All-American Second Team.
To top it all off, she achieved this at the age of 16, making her the youngest athlete in the competition. She also was, and still is, the youngest student at USF.
Some would call her a wonder woman.
Anna is an international student from Belarus. When asked why she chose to travel to America for college, she said that it was something she had been working towards since she was 13.
“A lot of tennis players from my country dream of American college,” Bintarovskaya said. “It is sometimes the only chance for us to get a good education.”
She has been playing tennis since she was 6-years-old, so her impressive skills don’t come as much of a surprise. She decided to bring her talents to USF because it was the only college that was interested in her ability, confidently mentioning that she doubts that they regret taking her.
She’s not wrong, as she already has an impressive array of achievements at the collegiate level.
When asked about her aspirations for the spring tennis season, she set her goals high.
“We need to win [the] conference this year,” Bintarovskaya said.
Bintarovskaya also mentioned that she hopes to have another clean sweep with the possible awards she can win again.
Anna balances her tennis schedule with a relatively balanced work and study schedule. She is a computer science major and works on campus at the Marian desk. Once she graduates, she plans to delve more into the computer science sphere.
“It really works for me, but if I can work as a tennis coach from time to time and give some players something of what I needed when I was their age, I will be happy to do it,” Bintarovskaya said. “And this, probably, is my biggest inspiration: no matter what sphere I am going to, I want to help someone (I hope, many people) to become better than I was doing myself.”
In her spare time she enjoys writing, reading and playing Dungeons and Dragons. Other than that, she stays inspired and motivated by her sheer will to get things done.
“I am the type of person who doesn’t need to be inspired,” Bintarovskaya said. “If I have to do something, I am doing it. If I don’t have to do it, I am probably also doing it just because I got excited.”
Even though the fall season for tennis is over, talking to Anna made us excited to go and watch her in the spring season. So Saints, keep an eye out next semester for the tennis matches to catch Anna on the court!