Saginaw Valley State University Athletics will be releasing a series of student-athlete spotlights, which will feature some of our Cardinal senior student-athletes from the 2019-20 academic year. Stay tuned to www.svsucardinals.com to get to know our SVSU seniors a bit more.

Next up in our series is Women's Tennis student-athlete Gyselle Daza Gutierrez. Gyselle is a native of Bogota, Colombia and played the past two seasons for the Cardinals after transferring from Copiah-Lincoln Community College. She has compiled 20 victories over the two years, playing at the 4-5 singles positions and all three doubles spots. 

Gyselle has a couple of favorite spots on campus, with those being the SVSU Tennis Complex and the Ryder Center. She is an international business major who is set to earn her bachelor's in spring 2020. She then plans on continuing and getting her MBA at SVSU. Gutierrez aspires to travel around the world and learn about different cultures before eventually running her own company.

Her favorite memory while competing for the Cardinals was playing in the GLIAC Tournament with her teammates. Her favorite road trip was the team's trip to Florida, as it was a really good time playing with her teammates and having fun. 

Gyselle's favorite hobby outside of tennis is photography. 

Gyselle Daza Gutierrez on her time at SVSU...

"My tennis career has taught me so many lessons. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to come to a foreign country and play the sport that I love. I had an amazing journey playing for SVSU!"

SVSU Women's Tennis Head Coach Ryan Ruzziconi on Gyselle Daza Gutierrez...

"Gyselle has epitomized the idea of "team first" and embraced her role on the team to help install a positive culture of support and growth within the program. Gyselle has continually worked to get better on and off the court, and brought a leadership example that built a family atmosphere inside the program. It is athletes like Gyselle that build a program into becoming stronger and more consistent in the years to come. I am proud and grateful to have coached Gyselle. To quote the author Le Guin, "It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters, in the end."