Posted at: 09/30/2009 11:00 PM

Lisa Johnen

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- Tonight's Female Prep Athlete of the Week is not foreign to winning in tennis.

She is, though, a foreign exchange student from Germany, and is 10-0 in singles matches this year.

ABC 6 Sports reporter T.J. Werre introduces us to this junior from Pacelli High School.

It didn't take long for Lisa Johnen to become the number one player on the Pacelli tennis team.

"We heard from some exchange students last year that she might be pretty good and it's turned out that way for us," says head coach Mark Henderson.

Johnen hasn't disappointed. As a matter of fact, she's surprised herself.

"I had no expectations because I had no idea what I was going to be into. So I just hoped to like to play tennis and improve my skills," Johnen says.

And while she's improving, she's helping her team get better at the same time, too.

"She makes us better with her effort on the court and the skill that she's got. She just does great things for the players' confidence having that they've got a player like that at the top of their lineup doing well," Henderson says.

So the player with no expectations finds herself as a favorite to get to state. Her coach saw it in her all along.

"I've coached at the college level and you don't see players this talented all that often."

She also has an interesting way of motivating herself. If you hear her muttering some strange words... Don't worry, it's just German.

"I talk German to myself because I have a feeling to play the game I played in Germany I will play it here if I talk German to myself," Johnen says. "It's something like, c'mon, more better or something. I don't scream like really loud, no."

And like any American high school athlete, she has one goal.

"I would like to go to state."

Lisa Johnen is the ABC 6 Sports Prep Athlete of the Week.