Catherine Parenteau: Acing Adversity
4/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
By Nick Barnowski, MSU Athletic Communications Student Assistant
No tennis player on campus thrives under pressure like Catherine Parenteau.
Three different times this season, the deciding point has come down to the senior's match. And every time, she's earned her team the win.
"I really like the pressure," Parenteau said. "I get really focused, and I like when people are watching. But mostly, I know I just need to leave everything out there on the tennis court."
Winning the close matches for her team is a point of pride for the Parenteau, who's battled a language barrier and a severe shoulder injury to become a leader on the MSU women's tennis team.
The Montreal, Quebec, native, who started playing tennis when she was four, decided to come to the United States on a scholarship to play at a university.
"One of my coaches in high school came up with the idea of me going to the United States," she said.
In Quebec, students do not have a 12th grade, so Parenteau graduated and began getting recruited as a 16-year-old. She did not speak English, so the language barrier, along with her young age, made the process difficult.
She enrolled at Arkansas, where an assistant coach and two teammates also spoke French, which helped ease the transition, but limited her ability to learn English. After her freshman year, she transferred to Michigan State, which eventually ended up being one of her greatest decisions despite a rocky start.
"When I transferred it was the hardest for me," Parenteau said. "Academic wise, it was harder, and I had to learn English. It was very hard my sophomore year."
She performed well on the court, toppling two Big Ten opponents in singles and playing in 23 matches at No. 1 doubles. At the end of her sophomore season, though, she began to feel pain in her shoulder. Initially, she assumed it was soreness from lifting weights, but when it inflamed over the summer, it became a problem.
"At the beginning of my junior year, I found out that two of the bones in my shoulder aren't fused, so they were always moving," said Parenteau of the injury, which created significant pain when she played. "The doctors said they didn't know if I was going to play that season, but I rehabbed and I was able to play."
Despite the pain, she finished 12-9 in singles play with two wins over ranked opponents. In doubles, she went 13-7 with four wins over ranked teams. Overcoming the injury to her shoulder is her biggest individual accomplishment as a Spartan, she said.
"I thought about quitting a lot and giving up," Parenteau said. "Something made me want to keep going even when it was hard. I wanted to compete for my team."
Parenteau, who won seven out of eight singles matches from Feb. 21 to March 28, will compete in this weekend's Big Ten tournament in Evanston, Ill. The psychology major also received honors at the Spartan Academic Excellence Gala on April 13, a feat she said she was extremely proud of.
She hopes to attend grad school - somewhere warm, she added - after graduating, and is also interested in coaching the sport she loves. With just a few match days left, she's going to do whatever she can to enjoy her final moments on the court as a Spartan.
"It's just so much fun to compete with my team," she said. "When I'm here, you win for the team. You represent Michigan State."
Players Mentioned
