Margarita Karnaukhova, known to her friends as Rita, is simply the best women’s tennis player in Sacramento State history.

Her accolades speak for themselves.

First, there are the four consecutive Big Sky Conference MVPs, an unprecedented display of consistency. She was the first nationally-ranked player in Hornet history, climbing as high as No. 14 in 2004 when she was selected as an All-American, reaching the NCAA’s Sweet 16 in singles. Her overall singles record stands at 66-17, and she was absolutely invincible during conference play, never losing a single match to a Big Sky rival.

By the time the Russian native came to America, she had already built a strong resume. Ranked No. 1 in Russia for girls 18 and under, Karnaukhova had played on her country’s 1999 European Cup championship team, earned the Kremlin Cup Open championship, and played for Russia’s World Cup team that same year.

In her hometown of Krasnodar, students make their career choices early.

“Nobody wants to study in Russia. Everybody wants to play tennis,” said men’s tennis coach Slava Konikov, a native of Russia himself. “Russian tennis is so different than American tennis because it is a problem to find small children here who want to play.”

When she was a little girl in Krasnodar, Russia, drawing was her thing. So much so that when the time came to choose between art or tennis, she couldn’t decide. Karnaukhova decided to continue with tennis when she was diagnosed with scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.

“I was thinking maybe I could do both, but when I got through the medical (examination) and they said you cannot sit for a long time because my posture was getting worse and worse. I decided not even to go to art school,” Karnaukhova said.

After choosing to play tennis, Karnaukhova ran into her first obstacle, though not the kind a young tennis recruit might expect.

“There was only one coach (in Krasnodar), and he had a drinking problem,” Karnaukhova said. “You couldn’t really see it, but of course the parents would find out, and they’re not going to give their kids to a coach like that.”

Although another coach would end up teaching her tennis, this drunken and unlikely mentor would get her started on a physical training regimen, demanding from her the discipline she would need to build her body correctly.

“He didn’t want to hear ‘I can’t’ or ‘I don’t want to.’ It was just like ‘do it or you leave right now,’ ” Karnaukhova said.

That physical strength and discipline would lay the foundation for the future of Karnaukhova’s game, marked by sheer-brute force and speed, a combination that trainer Eric Weill admits he hasn’t quite seen the equal of. In his six-plus years of training tennis players, both men and women, Weill believes Karnaukhova rises above them all.

“She is the best by far. No one’s really even close. And that’s because she has a combination of size, speed, explosiveness, agility and balance. I mean, you name it, she has all the abilities,” Weill said. “You can tell someone to try something this way, and they may think they’re doing great but they’re doing the total opposite thing. For her, she picks it up with a snap of her fingers. Like ‘hey, try this,’ she tries it once and gets it the first time, and remembers it.”

Konikov is equally impressed with her abilities and her knowledge of the game.

“I think Rita is special; it’s a different speed,” Konikov said. “She would beat a lot of good guys on my team.”

Years ago, in a tournament hosted at his Rio Del Oro Racquet Club, Sac State Coach Bill Campbell got to see for himself the skills that would later dominate the Big Sky. After watching the young Russian, a senior in high school at the time, he told her she would have a spot on the Sac State tennis team if she wanted it.

“I ended up not even considering other options, and going with Sacramento,” Karnaukhova said.That chance encounter paid dividends immediately, as Karnaukhova stepped into the No. 1 singles spot as a freshman, a position she would anchor for the next four years.

“Rita has the physical skills of any women’s tennis player in the world, at the highest level, and quite honestly, she can compete with any of them physically,” Campbell said. “It has always been my hope that she would turn pro, because if she wanted to, and really wanted to be focused, there’s no reason why she couldn’t be one of the top women’s players in the world.”

Josh Terrell can be reached at [email protected]