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From Slovakia to Lakeside, she came to play tennis

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When Lukas Blaha attended El Capitan High for a year, his 10-year-old sister Sara Blahova listened intently as he described his experience and decided then and there she wanted to follow in his footsteps.

That’s easy if you live in Lakeside — not so much so if you’re from Slovakia.

But Sara, a straight-A student, made it known to the foreign exchange program her hopes of studying in the U.S., and a month ago she arrived at El Capitan eager to learn and, sure, play a little tennis.

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Actually, a lot of tennis.

While she’s getting a crash course in American culture, when she gets on the tennis court she’s right at home. Doing quite well, too, running up a 32-0 record at the start of this week.

She’s so good, coach Erik Hur has Blahova practice against first-year assistant coach Nick Bell, who played at Southern California Christian.

“She’d be No. 4 on the women’s team at Southern California Christian right now,” said Bell, who is amazingly even-matched against the powerfully-built 5-foot-9 Vaqueros junior. “She steps into her backhand — she has a beautiful backhand — and she can send it down the line or cross-court equally well.”

Teammate Audrey Moyer is happy she plays doubles and doesn’t practice very often against the newcomer.

“(Blahova) is very intimidating,” said Moyer. “She’s a beast. At school she’s very friendly but on the court she gets into a zone and is just so strong. She’s aggressive and plays with high energy. When I’m not playing, I like to sneak a peek at how she’s playing because she’s so good.”

Blahova doesn’t know about all that, just that she’s having fun on the court while spending the rest of her time maintaining that 4.0 average and polishing her English, one of four languages in which she’s proficient.

“I want to go to college (in the U.S.) and hope that by playing in high school, that will make it easier,” said Blahova. “In Slovakia, tennis is very popular, and I’m among the Top 20, but I want to go to college, not play pro.

“There are no sports in high school at home. It’s all club (Slavia Agrofert).”

Home is Bratislava, the capital city of the small country. How small? There are 41 states in the U.S. that are larger. Bratislava is close to the Austrian border and Slovakia is surrounded by five countries.

Her host Kimberly Janes, who has offered her home to six other foreign exchange students, including Lukas, said Blahova’s eyes were wide with amazement when the family went to Smart & Final to shop, noting that she’d never seen so many vegetables and fresh fruit.

She had a similar experience at her first football game.

“It isn’t the ‘futbal’ we know (soccer),” Blahova said. “I knew a little but I was confused. It was a nice atmosphere with the cheerleaders, the band, the snack bar. My friend (from Ukraine) tried to explain everything but all I knew was what the quarterback did.”

Put her on the tennis court, with her 120 mile-per-hour serve, and she’s right at home. Since she aspires to be a surgeon, she’s expanding her English daily.

“She’s constantly thinking in both languages, which is hard,” said her host. “She doesn’t watch TV or play on a computer. She’s up at 5:30 and gets to bed around 10.”

Blahova has already visited Julian and the Pacific Ocean is coming up in October, but she’s learning everything she can about the high school tennis playoffs.

Hur said he thinks she’ll be right in the mix for the singles championship because she’s the kind of player who rises to the occasion.

“She’s feisty and she can turn up the intensity level,” said Hur. “She just wants to be one of the 16-year-old girls. In the First Serve Tennis Tournament, she was unbeaten against teams like Cathedral Catholic, Poway and OLP.

“There’s incredible talent in this county, but Sara has not missed a practice or an event. She’s a gift from the tennis gods.”

Brand is a freelance writer.

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