The spring high school sports season is rapidly coming to a close, but one foreign exchange student in Ithaca has made the most of her time on the tennis courts.

Luba Kryshchuk's tennis stroke is as strong as her love for the sport.

“Playing tennis is always been like my passion," Kryshchuk said. "And coming here every day after school is one of the highlights of my day, for sure.”

Born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, Luba first picked up a racket at the age of 5. Idolizing Serena Williams, she had cemented herself as one of the best tennis players in her home country by age 10, participating in competitions all across Europe.

“Going to Europe was such an amazing experience," Kryshchuk said. "Like, it made me realize that I'm not as good as I thought, and there's so much more competition in the world. And like seeing these girls that like, work every single day and wanted to be professionals, it was a such like unreal experience.”

Tennis was her life. But at the age of 13, with the idea of spending more time with family and making new friends, Kryshchuk decided to take a break from her tennis career.

“I really wanted to see another kind of part of my life, just to go to normal school, have normal friends because all my friends were tennis friends," Kryshchuk said. "So I really wanted to experience like just traveling because my family travels a lot and I couldn't really travel that much with them because of tennis.”

But the sport lever left her mind. She srrived in the U.S. in 2021 as a foreign exchange student with her racket in hand.

“I saw all my tennis clothes, I saw all my tennis rackets when I was packing, and I was like, 'maybe I should give it a try because I haven't played it for like multiple years,'" Kryshchuk said. "So I was like, just in case, just in case, I'm going to pack my racket, maybe, maybe some, I'll get something out of it. And now I’m here.”

But the thought of home was always there, especially in February of 2022, when war broke out in Ukraine, displacing many as families who fled the fighting, including Kryshchuk's.

“Seeing your little cousins and seeing your grandma and parents and a bomb shelter, life didn't prepare me for that," Kryshchuk said. "So that was that was experience that I never thought it would happen. And I'm just really glad my family is safe. But the stuff that is still happening, it's really sad. It's really heartbreaking to see how it is over there right now.”

Her parents found safety in Poland. And with the exchange program offering her another year in the U.S., Kryshchuk found a home in Ithaca and a spot on the boys tennis team after a late enrollment denied her a spot on the girl's team in the fall. And her skills on the court quickly came back.

“I’m so grateful that they let me play on the boy's tennis team and they, it's been amazing to practice with them, to go to the tournaments with them, to go to McDonald's after all the matches, like that's the best part to be honest,” Kryshchuk said with a laugh.

She says she's indebted to those that helped her reach this spot: her friends, family, host families and coaches.

“Since I was little, I've always dreamed about going to college in the U.S.," Kryshchuk said. "America has such pretty programs, such really good programs, universities. So I feel like that would be amazing to achieve.”