"My mom really likes watching tennis, so she actually got my brother started playing tennis and then he kind of dragged me into it."
 
The start of Sophie Pearson's athletic career was unremarkable; a parent's endeavor to have their children be active is as common as a San Diego sunset. However, in the years since, Pearson has carved out a successful Division I tennis career and promising post-graduate career.
 
In her four seasons as a Triton so far, Pearson has been at the top of the pecking order, primarily filling the No. 1, 2, and 3 spots. By her sophomore year, she was in the No. 1 spot for doubles as she teamed up with Ella Pachl for a 4-1 record in Big West play. She also assumed the No. 1 singles spot 10 times.
 
Pearson's senior year was her first full season following COVID restrictions and her third year of playing in Division I, neither of which slowed her down. She and Naomi Nguyen teamed up for a 7-3 record at the No. 3 position, while she went 7-7 at the No. 4 singles position.
 

 

However, her college career has not been without its trials. An ankle ligament tear sidelined Pearson for the final half of her freshman season. Two years later, a dislocated shoulder midway through the season saw her away from the court until the fall.
 
The following season, a wrist issue escalated to the point of debilitating pain whenever she hit a backhand, prompting surgery over the summer. After the surgery offered limited improvement, she shifted to backhand slices, a move she has been honing alongside coaches Sebastian Bader  and Joe Edles.
 
"It's kind of like you have to learn a new way to play, so it's definitely been interesting," Pearson said.
 
One thing keeping her going throughout these setbacks has been her love for the dual nature of college tennis: 
 
"You're not just competing and trying to win for yourself but also for the rest of your team," Pearson said.
 
More broadly, Pearson views the team's holistic culture as a highlight of the program. Whether it is the group study sessions at Geisel Library or jokes on the court, the team has fostered a unique academic-athletic balance that has seen them secure the highest team grade point average of all Triton teams for each of the past three quarters.
 
Such an achievement becomes decidedly more impressive considering the major workload that those like Pearson have undertaken. Influenced by her doctor parents and an online career-matching test taken as a child, Pearson searched for an interdisciplinary engineering major adjacent to the medical field. She ultimately landed on nanoengineering, with a focus in bioengineering; she narrowed her occupation interest to biomedical engineering following her undergraduate studies.
 
An internship with Dexcom — a company specializing in continuous glucose monitoring devices — allowed Pearson to realize she wanted to fill a more impactful and interpersonal role that worked with the user. Simultaneously, Pearson turned her attention to prosthetics.
 
The fifth year's interest in artificial limbs dates to her childhood in Colorado, where she spent many of her days volunteering with the Wounded Warrior Project®. Fusing her major coursework with her athletic background, Pearson hopes to optimize artificial limbs for an active lifestyle. She is already doing comparable work with the school's Advanced Robotics and Controls Lab, where she is working on a robotic "gripper" that will safely manipulate human limbs.
 
Pearson picked up a racket for the first time at the age of 10. The Longmont, Colorado native had to get creative in the face of frigid temperatures and snow that often prevented her from playing on the limited number of outdoor courts. A makeshift basement set up with boxes as stand-ins for a net sufficed for a couple of years before her interest and skills outgrew the room.
 
Accordingly, Pearson began tennis lessons three days a week. It would have been more if Colorado's altitude and geography were not in such strong opposition to the sport. On the flip side, Pearson could trade in her tennis shoes to enjoy the state's world-class mountains in skis and hiking boots.
 
"It's very chill," Pearson said. "San Diego has been a lot like that, but just with the beach."
 
Despite the shortened training time, Pearson was well-equipped upon entering high school. In her freshman season, she made it to the state competition. And won.
 
"That was a pretty big moment and kind of made me focus more on tennis and gave me confidence to think that I could actually play in college," Pearson said.
 
Such success makes a bit more sense in the context of Pearson's family, namely her grandfather, who played football at Nebraska and instilled the merit of athletics into Pearson's mother. Subsequently, she had her children play both individual and team sports growing up.
 
Pearson chose to pair tennis with volleyball, in which she also excelled. However, high school forced her to focus on just one sport, and while she played both throughout the four years, tennis seemed a better fit.
 
"I really really liked volleyball but I was honestly just too short," Pearson said.
 
To get recruited, Pearson traveled West to states like Nevada and Utah for tournaments. During her junior year, she even went to a tennis academy in Newport. When it came to her college decision, UC San Diego hit Pearson's trifecta of location, academics, and athletics.
 
Five years later, Pearson is heading into her final season as a Triton, more motivated than ever to simply enjoy the college athletics experience.
 

"You're never gonna get to be able to be in college athletics again, so I guess appreciating all the highs and lows that come with college athletics," Pearson said.
 
As for after the season?
 
"I'll probably play tennis just for fun…maybe playing in a 40-year-old women's league or something like that down the road."
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.