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Burak, Penguins have made net gains
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Before she became the best tennis player in Youngstown State history, Marta Burak was just a 15-year-old girl from Ukraine surrounded by students old enough to drink (or at least drive) who usually couldn’t find her home country on a map.
“Some people would ask me if we have rain or if we have rainbows,” she said, cracking up. “Some people ask if we have TV.
“They may have been kidding or serious. I’m not sure.”
Burak is the cornerstone of what’s become a tennis renaissance at YSU, only she couldn’t have known that in 2012. She went 19-9 that season, earning Horizon League newcomer of the year honors as well as first team all-conference, but with just five players on the roster, the Penguins finished 1-17.
A year later, with a full roster heavy on international players, the Penguins improved to 16-10 and narrowly lost to UIC in the Horizon League championship game. They broke through last spring, ending the Flames’ 17-year stranglehold on the league crown while earning YSU’s first NCAA tournament berth.
“Winning the Horizon League championship last year was a big thing,” she said.
This year has a chance to be even bigger. With a win Saturday against UIC, Penguins (13-8, 6-0 Horizon League) can clinch a share of their first regular season conference title. They can win it outright by adding a win against Valparaiso on Sunday. YSU has already won a school-record seven straight games.
“That [a regular-season title] is pretty exciting,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to playing UIC and Valpo.”
Burak, a biology major who won’t turn 20 until November, has rewritten YSU’s record book over the last four years, going 91-31 in singles matches — 14 more wins than anyone else in school history — and 77-40 in doubles matches. She’s 33-1 in Horizon League singles matches, with the lone loss coming as a freshman against UIC.
This season, Burak is 6-0 in Horizon League play at No. 1 singles and 4-1 in No. 1 doubles.
She likes to play aggressively — “When I have to grind, I’ll grind,” she said — and relies on a two-handed backhand that she likes to play down the line. (“My forehand is OK,” she said. “Not great.”)
Burak hails from Lviv, Ukraine, a chilly city of nearly 750,000 people on the eastern edge of the country, about 45 miles from Poland. While Ukraine has been in the news lately for its conflict with Russia, Burak said her hometown has mostly been unaffected.
“The part that is struggling is in the east,” she said. “I feel bad for the people. It’s just crazy. Russia is taking over.”
Burak is one of seven international students on YSU’s roster — the lone American is Liberty High graduate Victoria Ferry — and one of five from Europe along with junior Annina Brendel (Germany), sophomore Dominika Lackova (Slovakia), freshman Julianna Heino (Finland) and freshman Ana Stroe (Romania). Head coach Mickael Sopel is from Paris, while sophomore Nehel Sahni is from India and freshman Sofia Macias Mendoza is from Mexico.
“We all have different cultures, so it’s pretty nice that we can learn more about it,” Burak said. “We have friends all over the world now, teammates that we can go visit and stay with them.”
Burak misses certain things about Ukraine — the food, for instance — but she loves a lot about America, from the diverse geography (beaches, mountains, cities) to the friendly people to the Cheesecake Factory.
“Cheesecakes are amazing,” she said.
Burak plans to eventually attend medical school, but might wait a few years and attend graduate school at YSU first. While she would like to play in a few post-college tournaments, she’s coming to grips with the fact that her college career is nearly over.
“I’m sad that I’m almost done,” she said. “It’s been a great four years, I’ve played some great matches and had a successful season this year.
“I think we realize that we can be even more successful.”