A young girl from Salina stood sweaty and exhausted after a long day of playing tennis at the Sunflower State Games in Lawrence.

There was one thing Stephanie Smith did not want to do. She did not want to watch more tennis.

But, after some gentle prodding from her father, Larry, Smith found herself sitting courtside later that day, her eyes locked in on the University of Kansas tennis team in action.

“My dad would drag me to KU tennis matches,” a smiling Smith said. “I didn’t always want to go.”

Fast-forward nearly 10 years, and there is Smith, again locked in on a University of Kansas tennis match. Except this time Smith is on the court, rallying to carry Kansas to a 4-3 victory over Utah. From the sideline, Larry Smith watches his daughter.

Home court advantage

Stephanie Smith is a junior on the Kansas tennis team, and, as a native Kansan, she is a rarity. There is a distinct international flavor in college tennis. International players dominate most Division 1 rosters.

The Jayhawks are a prime example. The team features three players from Russia and two from Hungary. Only Smith and junior Lauren Hommell hail from the United States. Smith said that beating the odds and making the lineup has been a “dream come true.”

“It’s always the place I wanted to play,” Smith said. “My parents both went to K-State, so it was a little different to want to come to KU, but it’s always where I wanted to play tennis.”

Coach Amy Hall-Holt echoed Smith’s thoughts.

“She’s definitely a Kansas girl and wanted to be a Jayhawk. She wanted to stay close to home and this has been a good fit for her,” she said.

Following through

There is not much to do in Salina. In this central Kansas town of nearly 50,000, grabbing a famous Cozy Inn hamburger is about as good as it gets.

“We have to leave town a lot to go shopping,” Smith said. “You can’t even find a good place to go shopping.”

But Salina does have one distinctive trait. This city is obsessed with sports. Nearly 10,000 people flock to watch Salina Central play Salina South in football. a match-up that Dallas Cowboys cornerback Terrence Newman and current Kansas running back Jake Sharp both participated in during their high school years in Salina.

Smith left her own mark on Salina athletics by placing second three times in the 5A State Championships, playing for Salina Central High School.

“She’s probably the best girls tennis player that I’ve seen come through Central,” said Danny Struble, a 2005 graduate and former tennis player for Salina Central. “I mean, we had the Boys State Champion tennis team and she could beat all the guys on that team.”

Smith found that growing up in Salina posed a few problems for a young tennis player trying to stay competitive in the fanatical world of youth tennis.

“Being from Salina, I had to go to a lot of different towns,” Smith said. “We didn’t have indoor courts in Salina until the middle of my high school career. I would have to travel at least an hour to play indoors in the winter.”

Break point

During her freshman season, Smith won nine singles matches and led the team with a .500 winning percentage. Smith followed that up with an 8-6 singles record her sophomore year and was named to the First Team Academic All-Big 12.

“She’s the type the person who wants perfection,” Hall-Holt said. “She’s got a tremendous GPA. The same thing with tennis. She is out here working on individual workouts.”

Smith’s 2007 season has been marked by injuries and illness. She impressed last fall with a 9-2 singles, but an ankle injury kept her out of the first six dual matches of the spring season. Smith struggled to regain her fall form after her return, suffering two straight losses. She has since rebounded to win three out her last five to bring her record to 3-4 on the season.

“I think they [other players] understand how neat it is to play for KU,” Smith said, “but I do feel like I have more of a sense of pride for playing here because I’ve always grown up admiring KU athletes.”

Approach shot

Three hours before Smith clinched the victory for Kansas with her singles win against Utah, a young girl walked into the First Serve Tennis Center with her father. The girl was no older than 10 years old.

“Go talk to her,” the father said.

So, with pigtails in her hair and a media guide in her hand, the young girl approached Stephanie Smith.

“Can I have your autograph?” the young girl asked.

After Smith signed her media guide, the girl ran back to her to her father with a toothy grin.

“I got it,” she said.

Kansan sportswriter Rustin Dodd can be contacted at rdodd@kansan.com.

—Edited by Ashley Thompson