Southwestern women's tennis's Nina Mitrofanova opened her collegiate career with quite the first impression in 2019, defeating regionally-ranked Zoe Kaffen of Trinity University and Elisa Kendall of East Texas Baptist to win the ITA Fall Regional Championship. 

In doing so, she became the fourth All-American in program history, joining teammates Mary Cardone '20 and Esther Bowers '21, along with former Pirate Kate Daugherty.

Despite opening the spring season of her first year as the highest-ranked player on the team by the ITA at No.18, she wasn't yet the best player on the team. That distinction belonged to Cardone, who spent her falls as soccer's star goalkeeper, winning that program's first SCAC Championship. The presence of Bowers, who earned All-American status in 2017 in doubles, would have relegated Mitrofanova to line-three for most of the season if the pandemic hadn't canceled it. 

"She wanted to play No. 1 so bad last year, so playing No. 3 was really tough for her," Southwestern Head Women's Tennis Coach Billy Porter recalled heading into MItrofanova's sophomore season. "If she gets the call, she's going to do well because she wants it so badly. She's a gamer who rises to challenges." 

Mitrofanova entered a women's tennis program starting to pile up accolades, including back-to-back Southwestern Dr. Carla Lowry Women's Athlete of the Year awards for Cardone in 2019 and 2020. In her second year, Mitrofanova has managed to carve out her own significant space on Southwestern's wall of accolades. 

The sophomore from Conroe, Texas, followed her first All-American season with an encore, ending the year as the No. 20-ranked singles player by the ITA to become the first two-time singles All-American in program history. She posted an 11-7 record, including a 9-1 record against Division III competition to qualify for her first NCAA Individual Championships. Her play helped lead Southwestern to its first SCAC Championship, an NCAA Tournament berth, and a trip to the Elite 8, earning Mitrofanova All-SCAC First Team honors and the 2021 Dr. Carla Lowry Women's Athlete of the Year award; giving women's tennis the award for the third consecutive year.

"Our women's tennis team has been on a historic run over the past few years thanks to a group of extremely talented women. In a short time, Nina has been able to make her mark amongst some all-time Southwestern greats," Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Glenn Schwab says. "We're proud to announce her as the Dr. Carla Lowry Women's Athlete of the Year, and I look forward to the great things still to come in the upcoming years."  

Mitrofanova's 2021 season began slowly, dropping four consecutive matches after winning her first two. All four losses came against scholarship programs in higher divisions of play, but Porter believes something else was blocking Mitrofanova from claiming some winnable matches. 

"I think she struggled early in the year because she really wanted to play No. 1, and we were rotating [her and Esther] early in the year by design," Porter explains. "I wanted her to earn the position and become a better teammate. But, once she understood she was going to play No. 1, she settled down and got into a groove." 

Mitrofanova reeled off eight wins over her next nine matches, with the only loss coming against another scholarship program in Tyler Junior College. Then, over the final two weeks of the season, Mitrofanova played her greatest hits, defeating East Texas Baptist's Kendall and Trinity's Kaffen in a replay of her ITA Regional Championship victories. 

"I had to learn to be a No. 1. You have to be a leader to your team because you're representing everyone," Mitrofanova says. "You have a lot of responsibilities. You can't be late to practice, and you have to do all the little things right." 

In the final match of the regular season against Trinity, Porter delivered one more lesson to Mitrofanova. A few weeks earlier, after losing to Tyler Junior College, Porter addressed his team's struggling doubles tandems. 

"We were out of options. So I told them we were opening up every single position with eight women for six spots, and frankly, none of them were impressive in doubles," Porter explains. "I told them if they think they're safe, they're going to be the first one to find themselves out of the lineup." 

Southwestern experimented with its doubles lineups through the end of the regular season, benching Mitrofanova in doubles for the team's final regular-season match against Trinity. 

"Nina had been an All-American in singles, but frankly her doubles had been average to sub-average at best," Porter says. "Going into the biggest match of the year with arguably our best player out of doubles gave her a wake-up call." 

Mitrofanova responded to the wake-up call with an eye-opening performance in singles, dominating Kaffen 6-0, 6-1 to help Southwestern sweep singles and defeat Trinity for the first time in program history. 

"She came out in singles with so much aggression after being benched and just took it Zoe Kaffen," Porter recalls. "From there, I think her ability to be coachable in doubles was evident. The way she responded put her right back in the doubles mix for the SCAC Tournament." 

Southwestern opened the SCAC Tournament with a new doubles team, pairing the boisterous Mitrofanova with the quiet, even-keeled senior Marian Quetzeri for the first time against Schreiner in No. 2 doubles.

"I was kind of nervous because we'd never played together before, but when the match started, everything seemed to click," Mitrofanova says. "We had instant chemistry with our personalities and the way we were on the court. It was kind of sad we didn't discover it before. Q was a senior, and I was determined not to let her lose a senior match." 

Mitrofanova and Quetzeri tore through Schreiner's Blair Villarreal and Katelyn Ruiz 8-1, then destroyed Trinity's All-American twins Zoe and Mary Kaffen with an 8-3 victory, helping Southwestern clinch its first women's tennis conference title. 

"The strong contrasting personalities between Mariana and Nina played a big part in their success. But, I also think Mariana's leadership was able to help a sophomore who'd never played a championship match," Porter explains. "The way Nina responded, she went into the championship match with a chip on her shoulder and took it to the Kaffen twins." 

In addition to her First Team All-SCAC honors, Mitrofanova earned All-Tournament honors in doubles. She qualified for the NCAA Individual Championships and finished second in the SCAC Player of the Year ballot behind Kaffen despite defeating Trinity's star two out of three times in combined singles and doubles play and finishing one spot ahead of her at No. 2 in the ITA West Region rankings. 

Mitrofanova was undefeated in doubles and singles in the NCAA Tournament through the first two matches against Millsaps and Washington-St. Louis before losing in the Elite 8 to eventual national champions Emory University. 

"Nina got better as the season went on," Porter says. "She has a big game suited to play line-one, and I think starting her career the way [men's tennis's] Alexis [Dimanche] did as a freshman, out of the top spot to learn how to be a teammate and understand the game, was helpful. She definitely could be our future there at the top position." 

"The team aspect helps me on the court," Mitrofanova adds. "I've learned to play for something bigger than myself; I'm playing for the team. It's about everyone and how we can all come together to win." 

By embracing the responsibilities and team aspects of being Southwestern's top-line player, Mitrofanova has elevated herself and the program, combining team and individual success to be Southwestern's women's athlete of the year.