A Tale of the Intense Machine

You have to dig awfully deep to discover how successful Kathy Vigna is.

There are no tokens of her success--trophies, cups, dishes or ribbons--in her dorm room. Nor in her room at home in Santa Barbara, Cal.

To find any momento of Kathy Vigna's considerable achievements you have to locate the box in her garage. Open it and--finally--you'll get a glimpse of all that Vigna has done on the tennis court in her four years at Harvard and, earlier, in high school and junior high.

Vigna, a senior and number one singles player on the Harvard women's tennis team, is a refreshing figure on the tennis scene in the age of million-dollar tournaments, teenage burnouts and court misconduct.

She plays for one reason only: love of the game.

This attitude stems from the relaxed environment in which she learned the game. "I played a lot of family tennis when I was growing up," recalls Vigna. "We were a bunch of hackers, just having fun."

But the decision to pursue tennis was not imposed on Vigna, even though her father is a high school tennis coach. She had a chance to choose her own direction.

"Basically I did everything a kid did," she says. "I took ballet and piano, but tennis was something I could do well, compared to the other things, so I sort of fell into it."

Dutiful

Vigna started to get serious about playing tennis when she was 12. A year later, she beat her older brother.

"That was a problem for him," she says. "He has a typical male ego."

Vigna then spent a little time on the junior tennis circuit. "It was a bad scene," she says. "It was a horrible experience to see girls do anything, even cheat, in order to win."

When it came time to go to college, Vigna was faced with a difficult decision: which college to attend. She recognized the academic reputation of Harvard--"You have to come to Harvard once you get in," she says--but she credits former tennis coach Don Usher with helping her decide to pack her bags for Cambridge.

"It was a huge step coming out here," says Vigna. "I've never been out East, and just knowing that this man was going to take care of me was just a huge factor, because Berkeley was looking pretty good for a while."

Vigna's feats on the court, especially in two of her recent outings, are impressive--maybe even legendary. Against Kathy Bradford of Syracuse, Vigna split the first two sets, and then pulled off an amazing comeback (she was behind 4-5) in the third to triumph, 7-5. Last weekend at Yale, playing against Megan MacMahon, Vigna won 12 consecutive games after falling behind in the match 2-6, 1-5.

In addition to the pressure of her match, Vigna felt some outside pressure: her teammates were faltering.

"I remember looking around and I saw that everyone on my team was losing," Vigna says. "It was so depressing: I thought we were going to lose and not go to the NCAA tournament. But luckily we all turned around."

Vigna enjoys the comraderie of collegiate tennis and thinks that this comraderie is only enhanced by the type of gutsy performance she pulled off against Yale.

"Anyone who comes back inspires me because we're all so close and supportive," she says. "It's like a domino effect."

Vigna's style of play depends on concentration. She is able to block out the pressure, the taunts of unfriendly crowds and the antics of her opponents.

"When I see people getting upset, it just looks terrible," she says. "I think you really give a lot away when you show emotion, even when it's excited emotion. It also disrupts your concentration. I like to be on an even flow in whatever I do."

This even flow that Vigna exhibits on the court even inspired her nickname: "Machine."

"When I go and play, I just play," Vigna says. "[Harvard Coach] Ed [Krass] will never come and talk to me between games because when I play, I'm in my own little world. My assistant coach a couple of years ago started calling me a machine."

The nickname stuck, and her teammates--especially doubles partner Cyndy Austrian--can be heard urging her on, using the nickname, during her matches.

"She's the best," says Austrian. "She's the greatest inspirator, she's got the best attitude, and she sets the best example for the team. The first week of the year I was asked to write down who my inspirations in sports are. I put down Bjorn Borg, Larry Bird and The Machine."

Vigna says that the highlight of her career came when she won two titles (singles and doubles) at the Eastern Championships last year. "It was the best thing I've ever won. It was a goal that I've had for a long time," she says.

Despite her collegiate success Vigna does not entertain thoughts of becoming a professional.

"I love tennis, but I can't stand when people take the game so seriously that they burn out," she says. "When you have to play every day and have to win to survive, it becomes a job, and it takes all the fun out of it."

Vigna, an economics major and Quincy House resident, is instead looking forward to a life outside of tennis, and will try her hand at commercial banking. But she would like to go about it with the same calm determination with which she plays her game.

"I'd like to stay back East, in either Vermont or New Hampshire," she says. "It's my kind of environment, very slow and relaxed."

Should Kathy Vigna find success later in life, you might have difficulty finding the momentos given as rewards. But you can never put success in a box.