Athlete of the Week: Carolena & Juliana Campos

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - Senior, Carolena Campos and freshman, Juliana Campos have played tennis their whole life. But being four years apart, they never had the chance to play together.

Carolena was supposed to graduate with her friends but because of the COVID-19 waiver, she took the opportunity to further her education with a minor in Psychology and play another year.

“Thinking about taking an extra year of college compared to your whole life that you’ll end up working, it’s so little. i thought just take one more year and not rush into post grad life,” says Carolena.

The sister duo are 4-0 as doubles partners but sometimes it’s not the best option

“Sometimes with siblings, you see natural movement together. they asked if they can play with different people just to try it out. sometimes we mix up the doubles teams. sometimes you want a baseline player with a net player so you want to balance them out,” says Head Coach, Dan MacDonald.

Like all siblings, they argue, but with Carolina as team captain, they do a pretty good job at separating home life from the court. Coach MacDonald days Juliana gets more frustrated and Carolena is more calm, cool and collected.

“She has learned to step up to me because I used to boss her around when we were little,” says Carolena.

“It’s hard getting used to. We can be very honest with each other and blunt; knowing when to be a teammate and when to be a sister, but we have to separate that.”

They look up to the Williams sisters as role models but the Grand Junction natives come from a tennis family and count on them for support. But Juliana says, her role model is her older sister and admires Carolena’s hard work.

Of course, there’s the daring question everyone wants to know, who is the better tennis player?

“I’d say her, being the humble sister that I am,” says Juliana.

“She has a stronger mental game, but I think I’m physically better at tennis than her,” says Carolena.

They both agree this has been their favorite season.

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