When Texas women\u2019s tennis coach Howard Joffe \u201cincidentally\u201d watched Rose Marie Nijkamp play at a professional tournament in Bakersfield, California, her performance caught his attention.<\/p>\n
Nijkamp became one of the most sought-after players in the transfer portal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw her playing, and I knew she was talented,\u201d Joffe said. \u201cShe obviously, in the transfer portal, was one of the highest sought assets, if you will. I mean, every school wanted her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nijkamp\u2019s journey began in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, where she started playing tennis at about 6 years old. By 11, she was pursuing a professional career.<\/p>\n
After finishing grade school, Nijkamp chose to attend college in the United States to further develop her game and ease the financial burden on her parents, rather than going completely professional.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents were not able to financially support me as much, so I needed to find a solution so that I could play tennis still, and take a bit care more about my own career than my parents because they were (funding) everything,\u201d Nijkamp said.<\/p>\n
Initially, Nijkamp doubted college would benefit her tennis career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had this mindset of \u2018going to college is (about) going to finish your tennis career,\u2019 which is really bad because after I visited, that completely changed my mind,\u201d Nijkamp said. \u201cI saw that you can actually be a professional athlete while going to college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nijkamp committed to Oklahoma State in 2024 and made an immediate impact, earning Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors and winning All-Big 12 First Team in both singles and doubles.<\/p>\n
Her time at OSU ended after the team canceled the remainder of its 2025 season due to three out of its nine athletes suffering season-ending injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a pretty tough semester,\u201d Nijkamp said. \u201cI felt like I needed to go somewhere else to improve my tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n
After conversations with Texas\u2019 coaching staff, Nijkamp transferred to Texas to pursue her professional goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to go to a place that could help me develop my game to a professional level, and I think UT is the best place for that, and just has a lot of opportunities for me here,\u201d Nijkamp said.<\/p>\n
Joffe has already seen progress in Nijkamp\u2019s game during her short time with the Longhorns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen some really fundamental improvements just in the month of work, and so it\u2019s very exciting to see what she might do over the course of weeks and months,\u201d Joffe said.<\/p>\n
In late September, Nijkamp reached the semifinals in both singles and doubles at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships, partnering with junior Carmen Herea in doubles.<\/p>\n
Her early results with Texas reinforced for Joffe the grit she brings to the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s got that resource, which is really of tenacity,\u201d Joffe said. \u201cShe will fight. It\u2019s not a resource that has anything to do with sports. It has to do with who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite her competitive drive, Joffe said Nijkamp\u2019s character makes her stand out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn sports you often want a killer and a venomous snake,\u201d Joffe said. \u201cShe\u2019s very, very good with competing, and yet a sweeter, nicer, more kind, thoughtful young lady you\u2019re not going to find (elsewhere).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Texas women\u2019s tennis coach Howard Joffe \u201cincidentally\u201d watched Rose Marie Nijkamp play at a professional tournament in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-467746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}