NATCHITOCHES -- The swinging of the racquets on a crisp afternoon. Training in the weight room after a long day of classes. Improving on skills and techniques to apply during matches. All of these things are ingredients that will lead to a successful tennis season.

After a highly successful 2018 season on and off the court, Judit Castillo Gargallo has begun her third spring campaign with the Northwestern State Lady Demons tennis team, whose home opener is Saturday at the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex. NSU will host UL Lafayette Saturday at noon, then plays twice Sunday, Jackson State at 10:30 a.m., and LSU Alexandria at 2 p.m.

Last spring, NSU reached the Southland Conference Tournament championship match for the seventh time this decade, recording a 16-9 record that was the third-most dual match wins in school history.

Castillo Gargallo was 9-2 in Southland Conference singles play, earning second-team All-Southland Conference singles honors. She qualified for the Southland Conference Commissioner's Spring Honor Roll and earned a second-team spot on the Southland Women's Tennis All-Academic Team.

Although she now thrives on the tennis court, her athletic pursuits didn't start with tennis. She played soccer and ran track and field and cross country before picking up a racquet at the age of 12. Her dad started playing tennis with her, but there was nowhere to play in her hometown of Teruel, Spain. The closest city to practice in was Valencia, an hour and a half away, so for three years, her dad drove her there to practice.

When she turned 15, her parents thought it would be a good idea for her to move in with her sister, who was in college in Valencia.

"When I moved to Valencia, I left people and experiences back in Teruel," Castillo Gargallo said. "However, I knew that the best was yet to come. I met wonderful people in Valencia, I fell in love with the city and I was able to do what I liked the most, playing tennis, almost every day."

During her second year there, she was considering applying to the local university and working as a tennis coach. There is no opportunity for students to play sports at the collegiate level and study simultaneously in Europe, so she realized that decision would end her competitive tennis career. Coming to the United States would give her the opportunity to continue playing while furthering her education, an option she embraced.

Among the universities that showed interest in her were Montana State, Miami of Ohio, and UL Monroe. It was Northwestern State that won her over.

"After I talked to the head tennis coach (then Olga Bazhanova) for the first time I just felt that there was something special about the atmosphere at NSU," Castillo Gargallo said. "It seemed to be a place where people were kind, passionate, attentive, generous, supportive, and had lots of positivity."

That has proven true, she said, and the team's success has been an added bonus, although not unexpected. Bazhanova's mentor, Patric DuBois, succeeded her as head coach and guided the team to the brink of the conference championship and an NCAA Tournament experience last season.

On the heels of last year's near miss, Castillo Gargallo believes that they have a real chance to win the title this season. She said that matches are not won the day of the competition but in each practice. As

long as the Lady Demons continue to work hard, push each other in every practice, and support and care for each other, they will do great this season.

"Since I started playing tennis, my life turned 180 degrees around. Everything was happening very fast, and everything was because of tennis," said the personable 20-year-old, who has a 3.9 grade point average in health and exercise science.

"Tennis has given me people, experiences, places, education, respect, adversity and overcoming, languages and personality. Throughout my tennis career, I have discovered a whole new world, and I just realized that is not tennis what is part of my life. It is that I have this life, in huge part, because of tennis."

This weekend, she gets to showcase her talents in front of a home crowd for the first time in 2019.