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Brazilian athlete Kathleen Percegona adjusts to El Paso, emerges as leader for UTEP tennis

The story sounds so simple in its telling.

A foreign athlete arrives at UTEP with an impressive resumé, makes a smooth transition to El Paso and quickly enough takes a star turn.

That's true enough for the player at the top of the Miners' tennis lineup, senior Kathleen Percegona from Curitiba, Brazil. She's a Conference USA honor roll and academic medalist regular, the emotional and on-court leader of her team and a lover of all things El Paso as she and her team prepare for a match at Hardin-Simmons on Saturday.

Percegona made it all look easy, which wasn't the case when she stepped off a plane at the El Paso airport in January, 2019.