“That’s life…you’re not always going to be in an environment that you know…you have to get out there,” Sopel said.

Faced with the possibility of an end to her career in competitive tennis in France, Sopel contacted numerous Division I coaches throughout the United States. After visiting the campus, she decided to move to Bloomington to play for IU.

“I made my choice because IU has a great tradition … and I fell in love with the campus,” Sopel said.

Diversity is another factor that initially drew Sopel to attend IU. She is one of six international players on the women’s tennis team. Other home nations of the team members include England, Portugal and Russia.

“I purposely came here because they didn’t have a French (player)…I wanted to talk in English, be totally immersed in the culture and not speak French,” Sopel said.

While Sopel said she has not experienced cultural differences in terms of tennis, her classes did present some challenges during her freshmen year.

“I couldn’t understand my first classes…it was different because (in France) we don’t have multiple choice (tests), we have a topic and you just write for two hours or four hours,” Sopel said.

After three years, Sopel has adjusted to learning, playing and living in America. As an upperclassman, she has also taken a leadership role within the team.

“Myriam works really hard every day and in practice, and when we’re in the weight room, she really works hard in there,” IU women’s tennis coach Lin Loring said. “She leads by example.”

Unlike the past two years, Sopel is now able to share in her experiences with a fellow French native in freshman player Leslie Hureau.

“It’s kind of nice to have a French root to my country imbedded in the American culture…we have common points and we share stories and, when we miss our country, we just talk about it…I have someone to bond with,” Sopel said.

Despite staying busy with tennis and majoring in journalism, Sopel said there are times when she misses France.

“Of course lots of times I’m homesick — I miss my family, I miss my country…you don’t realize how much you miss something unless you’re far away from it,” Sopel said.

Sopel is able to stay connected with her family through her brother, who lives in the U.S. and is an assistant tennis coach at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. She was also able to see her mother over Christmas when she visited for the first time.

Despite sacrifices, Sopel is satisfied with her decision to move to the U.S.

“I know what I am here for, I know that I am doing what I love, I’m doing my passion…I have no regrets,” Sopel said.

However for the Indiana women’s tennis team, staying on beat was no problem at all as they recorded their third win in a row, defeating the University of Oregon 4-3 on Saturday. 

The Hoosiers improve their record to 10-2 on the season with key wins taken from opponents in the ACC, SEC and now the PAC-10, which will only give the girls confidence as they move towards conference play.   

“Our record is good for our schedule; we could easily be 6-6.  We have not been healthy all season so without being at full strength that is a good record,” said coach Lin Loring.

The Hoosiers earned the first team point of the day by winning the overall doubles play by a score of two matches to one.  The pairing of IU juniors Katya Zapadalova and Myriam Sopel came away with the deciding doubles win as they beat Ducks partners Pavlina Smatova and Trudie du Troit.

Indiana then opened up very strongly in singles play. Several of the matches came down to the wire and the Hoosiers were able to come away with a victory.

“The girls competed hard and didn’t give away any easy points,” Loring said.  “Oregon is a tough team to play; they like to hit the ball hard and on an indoor court that can pose problems.”

The Hoosier with the most impressive day was junior Katya Zapadalova, as she provided the winning point in her doubles match and won her singles play two sets to none with game scores of 6-2 and 7-5.

“My game ball has to go Katya; she has been sick all week and was really only 75 percent today.  She won both her matches and really helped the team today,” Loring said on Zapadalova’s performance.

The two teams split the singles team points as they both won three matches.  It was the doubles point that ultimately gave Indiana the win.

“This was a great college match and was how it should be with the doubles point counting for the win,” said Loring.

One of the highlights entering today’s game was that Hoosier freshmen Leslie Hureau was chosen as Big Ten player of the week on Feb. 23.  Leslie came into Saturday’s match riding a 4-0 record last week and played a hard fought match against Oregon freshmen Julia Metzger, but lost by a mark of two sets to one.

Up next, the Hoosiers travel to South Bend to take on the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame on Friday, March 5.