Being a college student-athlete during the COVID-19 pandemic is hard. But it's even harder for student-athletes like women's tennis senior
Leticia Lunge, who aren't able to be on campus practicing with the rest of her teammates.
Lunge was unable to return to the US in August from her home country of Brazil because of border closings that resulted from the pandemic. She could have gone to another country and spend two weeks there before coming to the US, but because of those costs and the still very prevalent COVID, her and her parents decided it was best to stay in Brazil.
Lunge talks about the challenge of not being back in the US, especially when it comes to classes and specifically her major of engineering, and how she's staying connected to her teammates as well as how she is staying in shape for tennis.
How do you manage your classes while in Brazil, especially being three hours ahead of St. Louis?
That's probably the worst part for me because I have evening classes at WashU through the joint engineering program, so I don't get done until 1 a.m. my time. And then it's hard to just go to sleep afterwards because your mind has been working.
Another difficult thing is that I have a lot of lab sections. And in the lab sections, we learn how to use machines, we learn experiments and online it's hard to do that. But we are trying to learn through Zoom. So one of my classes that I have a lab, my professor actually sent the kit via mail to me here, which was very nice of him. So I can actually do the experiments here as well. But I also have another lab section that some of my classmates are recording the experiment via Zoom and we can go over it. It's not the same, but everyone is trying to help each other out as much as possible.
What do you miss most about not being able to practice with the women's tennis team right now? And how have you been able to stay connected to them?
The tennis team is really close. We are always together and that's what I miss the most. You go from spending 24/7 with everyone to spending no time. I just miss being with my team. We message every day, but it's not the same. We've also been able to do some Zoom meetings and talk, because we like to gossip and talk about everything! Coach (
Rick Gyllenborg) also does his best to keep up with me too, so that's nice to know that he cares about me and what I'm doing.
How are you staying in shape for tennis?
I have a club that I used to play at before moving to the US, so every time I come back here, I arrange practices with them. So right now, I'm practicing three times a week. It's not the same as I'm used to practicing five days a week at UMSL, but with COVID there are restrictions. I am just trying to practice as much as I can because when or if I am able to come back in January, we won't have a lot of time before matches start, so I want to be in my best shape.
What are you looking forward to the most when you are able to return to St. Louis and UMSL?
Just seeing everyone and trying to get back to how it used to be. I know it won't be the same, but I'm just looking forward to trying to get back to my routine there. Of course, I'll miss my parents and its been so good to spend so much time with them, but it's time to get back to practice with the team and back to matches. I miss playing and I miss competing.
What has the last eight months taught you?
To enjoy every moment. It was a tough time for me at the beginning of the semester. I'm a senior and I feel like I'm missing that senior year. I want to get back and enjoy every moment. That's something I would tell freshmen – to enjoy every moment because it goes by so fast. So I'm going to have that mentality when I get back. Every moment counts. Every match counts. Every practice counts.
