Senior Day is approaching for Ariana Paradis and her Dominican University of California tennis teammates, yet she sounds more mad than glad.

“Everything is finally clicking this semester,” says Paradis, a busy nursing major preparing for the final home match of her Dominican athletics career against Dixie State College on Thursday, April 11 at 8:30 a.m. “I'm kind of upset. I'm finally making progress and striving to reach my potential and getting better and better and now I'm done.”

Academically, Paradis is not done at Dominican. She will return to campus in the fall to begin nursing clinicals at Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center and The Tamalpais on a career path she hopes will lead her pediatrics or neonatal care.

However, Paradis' athletic eligibility is running out. A junior college transfer last year, Paradis has found her stroke with the Lady Penguins, winning her last three matches and four of her first five in March.

“Ariana has improved tremendously. It's been very rewarding to see a player such as Ariana raise her level of play,” says Head Coach Alex Poorta. “I always feel very confident in her when she is in close matches because she is always up for the challenge. The biggest difference between her level in the beginning of last year and now is her positive attitude on the court. No matter what the score or how she is playing that day, she will fight for the best result she can have.”

That was evident earlier this season on Feb. 10 in Turlock, Calif. The Lady Penguins were playing then-nationally ranked Cal State Stanislaus and Paradis was the last player on the court for Dominican. She had defeated Cal State Stanislaus' Aubree Brenda in the first set of their No. 5 singles match 6-0, yet the second set went to a tiebreaker. At that point, Paradis could have lost her composure and the match.

Instead, Paradis prevailed 7-5 in the tiebreaker, winning the match and clinching a stunning 6-3 team win by the Lady Penguins over the 20th-ranked Warriors.

“I felt like I learned to be a competitor that day and stay in matches and fight through it,” she says.

The victory was a confidence builder for Paradis and a confirmation of the faith her coach has in her.

“Ariana is very tough mentally. She steps up her level of play when it's close or is the deciding match,” Poorta says. “Ariana is always on the go. She coaches tennis, has worked in a restaurant, babysits. She has a stellar GPA and works hard in practice. She has a lot on her plate and seems to excel in all aspects. It's impressive!”

As a nursing major, Paradis has many challenges as a student-athlete. Her school days are longer than some of her rallies on the court. Paradis calls this time management balancing act difficult yet she manages to succeed. She made the Dean's List last spring and she's not one to waste time, though at the expense of good-natured kidding from her teammates, including fellow seniors Gaby Verspieren and Jessica Curlett who know her as Ariana. It's not uncommon for Paradis to study flash cards while riding to games or do homework while on airplane flights.

On April 14, when the Lady Penguins will travel to the Pacific West Conference Women's Tennis Championships in Honolulu, Paradis is resigned to the fact that she will be cramming for finals on the flight there. Otherwise, she will have her nose in a book more than in the sunshine during down time in Hawai'i.

Fortunately, Paradis will see the sun playing her matches and playing tennis brings her great joy. She didn't start playing seriously until she was 15, though her father, Jon, had been trying for years to get her onto the court. Instead her mother, Elena, led Paradis to ballet classes as a child. But the summer after her sophomore year at Folsom High School, Paradis decided to change her priorities and join her dad.

Now, just when she is blossoming in the sport, Paradis' college athletics career is coming to an end. Tennis has become a much-needed routine in her life.

“It's going to be really weird,” she says. “I've been playing tennis since my sophomore year and it's always been year round. I like being busy so I feel next semester will be like, 'What do I do?' It'll be my first time being a normal student.”