by Andrew J. Ferraro
Staff Writer
Just about the only thing that junior Susanne Andersson and sophomore Luciane Kelbert have in common is that they both play good tennis.
Fortunately, they both play tennis under University of Houston head coach Stina Mosvold and are both contributing to the resurgence of tennis for the Cougars.
A Katrineholm, Sweden, native, Andersson is in her third season with the Cougars.
In her first season at UH in 1995, she posted a 29-8 combined record in singles and finished her freshman year with a No. 66 ranking in the country.
Similarly, Kelbert won the first six matches of her UH career and went on to win nine of her final 12, showing that she, like Andersson, would definitely be a force to reckoned with.
"Lucy and I play pretty much the same way," Andersson said. "We both like to be very aggressive at the baseline and we like to play aggressive tennis."
Mosvold said that the two play an important role on the team to show leadership and help the newer players to adjust.
"Susanne is a very aggressive player who plays the baseline well," Mosvold said. "Luciane hits the ball very, very hard and plays the net real well."
Off the court, however, the two are different in some ways but both seem to agree on one thing about Americans.
"It is very difficult to get close to the people here," Kelbert said. "Once you say 'hi' to someone, that's it. There seems to be no way to take the relationship any further."
Andersson added, "Yeah, and when they say they are going to call you, they usually don't. Back home, you get to know everyone. They'll talk to you; they'll say more than just 'hello' and 'see you later.'"
And even though both players miss their countries, their reasons for doing so vary greatly.
"I miss the snow," Andersson said. "I like the winter more than the summer, because I love to ski, and I love to bundle up.
"There, the landscape is so beautiful and I guess I just miss the whole atmosphere of winter there and of Sweden itself."
Luciane does not miss the weather in Brazil, and the 74-degree heat that descended upon Houston over the holidays did not come close to the unpleasant temperatures felt in Porto Allegre, Kelbert's home town.
"It was so hot down there that I felt like I could hardly breathe," Kelbert said.
Enough said.
Both players grew up with tennis as a part of their lives, and were both influenced, in some way, by their parents.
But Andersson was pushed by her father and said that he has always been able to straighten out the faults in her game.
Kelbert worked with her mother and attributes her as the person who has influenced her tennis game.
"My mother has always helped to go on and has never once let me give up," Kelbert said.
After college, Andersson wishes to turn, but Kelbert wants to attend graduate school and thinks that she'll be past her prime once she finally graduates.
"Won't I be too old to go pro?" Kelbert asked jokingly.
With the spring season just underway, the two are poised for success coming off great fall seasons and are ready to take on some new opponents, particularly from Conference USA.