Lake Stevens tennis player is a smash from Germany

Published 10:23 pm Monday, April 27, 2009

LAKE STEVENS — Before he saw Antonia Liebenow touch a racket, Jeff Leer knew the tennis player from Germany was special.

An exchange student at Lake Stevens High School, Liebenow immediately impressed Leer, the school’s girls tennis coach, with the most basic of actions. “I watched her walk,” Leer said.

That’s it? “Serious,” he said. “She walks like an athlete.”

The next step in evaluating Liebenow, a 16-year-old from Luebeck, Germany, was to see what she could do on the court. The coach was even more intrigued.

“I saw her hit one ball,” said Leer, “and I immediately got (hotel) reservations for state. It was pretty obvious that she was a different level of player.”

This spring Liebenow, a Lake Stevens junior, has proven her superiority. Through Friday she was a perfect 11-0 in matches for the Vikings (8-0 at No. 1 singles, 3-0 at No. 1 doubles). Only one of her singles matches was competitive.

“In tennis, there’s levels,” Leer said. “And Toni’s a couple steps up from most of the kids in the league.”

Liebenow clearly has the experience and talent, Leer said, to place high at the 4A state championships (May 29-30 in Kennewick). When postseason play begins May 13, Leer expects the hard-hitting German to shine.

“She’s just going to get better and better as we progress here,” said Leer, “because the competition is going to get stiffer and that’s kind of what she’s waiting for.”

In Germany, Liebenow plays for a club team because her school does not offer tennis. Encouraged by her dad to try the sport, she started competing at age 7 and quickly began playing five days a week. She competed on red clay courts, which lead to longer rallies and require players to be creative and well-rounded.

Tennis was much more appealing, she said, than soccer, the other sport Liebenow tried while growing up. “Tennis is a pretty hard sport,” she said, “because you have to move your feet and you have to hit the ball.”

And boy, can she hit hard. Liebenow’s first serve reaches a velocity of about 100 mph, said Jesse Schouten, the Mill Creek Country Club’s director of tennis the last five years. He recently watched her play some of the area’s best young players in Mill Creek and — like Leer — was stunned.

Liebenow is “really quite the physical specimen. She’s a super-versatile player,” said Schouten, who added that Liebenow’s serve ranks among the best in the Northwest.

The Lake Stevens standout also blasts a full arsenal of groundstrokes (forehands and backhands), consistently using wicked spin that frustrates opponents. “She is a master of spin,” Snohomish High tennis coach Dick Jansen said. “She has the whole package.”

Liebenow won two age-group singles championships (under-14 and under-16) in Germany. The titles were roughly the equivalent of winning a state crown in the United States, coach Leer said.

This will be Liebenow’s only prep season in the United States; she will return to Germany to finish school. What does she hope to accomplish? “I don’t know — just have fun,” she said.

Leer urged her to share her true aspiration. “You don’t want to win state?” he said.

“Yes I do!” she said. “But I don’t want to say it.”

Sorry, too late.

Liebenow’s road to Lake Stevens High was random. She said she did not request to live anywhere in particular during her exchange. But living with her host family and playing on a high school team has been fun, she said.

Asked what she knew about Washington before she arrived here, Liebenow said: “I knew it would be cold.” Bingo. On the day of her interview with The Herald, Lake Stevens’ practice was canceled because of heavy rain and hail. “Pretty awesome!” she said, with sarcasm coloring her German accent.

Sometimes when a talented exchange student joins a team, other players get jealous, coach Leer said. But Liebenow’s outgoing personality and humor endeared her to the Vikings. “She’s the life of the party,” he said.

The only problem, Leer joked, is Liebenow constantly threatens to quit the team because teammates ridicule her voice.

“They’re making fun of my accent. Can you believe that?” she said.

Liebenow’s only close singles match this season was April 14 against Stanwood’s Megan LaLone, a gifted freshman. LaLone went ahead five-games-to-three in the first set and got within one point of winning the set. But Liebenow rallied to win 7-5 and took the second set 6-2. The players could clash once more during the regular season (Stanwood plays at Lake Stevens May 5) and again in the postseason.

Competitive tennis might not be in Liebenow’s long-term future. She said she might return the U.S. and play in college after she finishes school in Germany. But her primary goal is to become a doctor, like many of her relatives, and specialize in sports medicine. Her dad, two uncles, grandma and grandpa are all physicians.

Regardless of what happens, the Lake Stevens coach will treasure every moment he has with Liebenow. He fondly remembers the day, about two weeks before the school year began, when he found out the talented exchange student would be a Viking.

“God smiled on me,” Leer said, “and we were fortunate enough to have Toni this year.”

Mike Cane: 425-339-3471, mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam.