Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jeremy Northum Junior Elze Potgieter trained in South Africa when she was a teenager and has played in the junior Austrailian Open. [Click to enlarge]

When she was 14, junior Elze Potgieter began training at the Performance Center in Pretoria, South Africa.

While at the academy, Potgieter competed in international tournaments across the globe, including the Junior Australian Open. Almost seven years later, Potgieter is in her third season with the Texas A&M women's tennis team and leads the squad from her No. 1 singles position.

"Traveling by myself at age 14 overseas has defined who I am," Potgieter said. "When I saw that I had a opportunity to come to the states, I wanted to do it. I wanted to come over here not knowing one single person and see how I could make a success out of it."

Potgieter is the leader on a team that has seven underclassmen. She said she incorporates the team into her leadership role instead of trying to carry the burden herself.

"It is a great opportunity to be the oldest on this team and have all these young players that are new, energetic and fired up to come out and do the best they can," Potgieter said. "We are so close as a team that we all have a leadership role in a way. It is not like I tell them what to do, we each give our opinion, figure out what is the best for everyone and go with that."

During her sophomore year, Potgieter had the No. 1 singles position for the Aggies and recorded an overall record of 22-14 in the spring. Despite having a Big 12 record of 16-4 in 2008, Potgieter said she will have a stronger year for the Aggies in 2009.

"This year I am mentally a lot stronger than last year, I feel like I am more ready for Big 12 this year," Potgieter said. "I want to do even better than last year for sure. I have been working a lot harder than last year and I think that will pay off this year."

In 2009, Potgieter has faced off against an opponent in the Top 50 individually in five of her seven matches.

Potgieter has posted a 2-5 record, but after a three-set win against South Florida, she will look to carry the momentum forward to her play against TCU and Big 12.

"I knew it was going to be tough starting out, every girl I played was ranked top in the nation. It was great because I felt like I have learned a lot from it," Potgieter said. "I guess the little things have been paying off, they finally came together this weekend, but I still feel like I have a lot of improvement to work on."

After losing three consecutive matches, the Aggies came back with a win over South Florida 5-2, Feb. 27. A&M will play No. 26 TCU at home. TCU is coming off consecutive losses to Miami, Texas Tech and Alabama. A&M Head Coach Bob Kleinecke expects them to be competitive.

"Playing TCU is one of those matches where we usually have pretty heated contested matches and I expect TCU to come in and be a good team," Kleinecke said.

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