TEMPE, Ariz. -- Lena Mihailovic hit the ground running when she arrived at Arizona State in January of 2015. To put it more accurately, she hit the pool swimming.
"The beginning was really hard because I had some issues with my paperwork so I came five to six days before our first game," the Sun Devils junior water polo player said. "It was kind of difficult trying to understand all the plays and the training part was different. I had never practiced this much and with weights, too, it was so concentrated."
Fortunately for Mihailovic, she is an expert at adapting to new environments. Her father, Predrag, was a professional water polo player until 2005, and then a coach. He changed clubs often, so while Lena was born in Belgrade, Serbia, she has also lived in Montenegro, Italy, Turkey and Australia.
"I didn't like moving so much at first, but now I like it because when I travel I have friends everywhere so I feel at home," Mihailovic said, laughing.
Mihailovic is feeling at home with her ASU family, too. Heading into Saturday's regular season finale with San Jose State, she led the Sun Devils with 43 goals; 15 more than she tallied last season and 16 more than her freshman season.
When Mihailovic, a right-hander arrived in Tempe, she was playing on the right side which puts the catching and shooting hand at the outside of the pool. She has since switched back to her customary left side -- one of many reasons she cites for her progress.
"I think at first, I was scared of making mistakes," she said of her freshman year. "I didn't know the team as well and as a freshman, my role was different because we had a really good lefty and a really good shooter. I was playing between them so it was more difficult to step up.
"Even last year was a time of adjustment, but now I am so used to the team that everything comes more naturally. I think the goals just come with that."
Mihailovic's parents still live in Sydney, and she is a part of the Australian national team program. She was playing at the Youth World Championships in Perth when a former Sun Devils assistant spotted her and phoned ASU coach Todd Clapper. Clapper went to see her play in the Junior World Championships in Madrid, Spain and he was sold.
"I liked the way she shot the ball and had good speed and because she was a coach's kid, she knows the game really well," Clapper said. "She's smaller for a post-up player but I liked her versatility and after talking to her, I knew she had the right attitude because she sets her sights pretty high as far as the national team and wanting to be on the Olympic team."
Mihailovic has three years to prepare for her ultimate goal of making the Australian Olympic team, but she is hoping to compete in the world championships in July in Budapest, Hungary.
"I knew when I first started playing water polo that I wanted to be in the Olympics," said Mihailovic, who followed her dad and brother to the pool in Turkey, but could only practice with boys at first because there were no girls teams. "I have three years and there is always progress to make with the little things I need to improve to make the bigger changes. I know I need to be higher out of the water and when I'm tired I still need to make good choices. It will be cool to make the next step."
More immediately, Mihailovic is trying to get the Sun Devils through the MPSF Championships April 28-30 in Los Angeles, and to the NCAA Tournament on May 12 in Indianapolis. The MPSF will only put its top four teams into the NCAA Tournament despite the fact that the top five ranked teams in the nation all hail from that conference: No 1 Stanford, No. 2 USC, No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 ASU and No. 5 Cal.
"Sometimes it feels really unfair but it gives us determination," Mihailovic said. "If we can get there we know we can really do a lot because we have played all these hard games against top teams.
"We have made really progress this season. We're not ready for the season to be over so we're all excited to play."
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"The beginning was really hard because I had some issues with my paperwork so I came five to six days before our first game," the Sun Devils junior water polo player said. "It was kind of difficult trying to understand all the plays and the training part was different. I had never practiced this much and with weights, too, it was so concentrated."
Fortunately for Mihailovic, she is an expert at adapting to new environments. Her father, Predrag, was a professional water polo player until 2005, and then a coach. He changed clubs often, so while Lena was born in Belgrade, Serbia, she has also lived in Montenegro, Italy, Turkey and Australia.
"I didn't like moving so much at first, but now I like it because when I travel I have friends everywhere so I feel at home," Mihailovic said, laughing.
Mihailovic is feeling at home with her ASU family, too. Heading into Saturday's regular season finale with San Jose State, she led the Sun Devils with 43 goals; 15 more than she tallied last season and 16 more than her freshman season.
When Mihailovic, a right-hander arrived in Tempe, she was playing on the right side which puts the catching and shooting hand at the outside of the pool. She has since switched back to her customary left side -- one of many reasons she cites for her progress.
"I think at first, I was scared of making mistakes," she said of her freshman year. "I didn't know the team as well and as a freshman, my role was different because we had a really good lefty and a really good shooter. I was playing between them so it was more difficult to step up.
"Even last year was a time of adjustment, but now I am so used to the team that everything comes more naturally. I think the goals just come with that."
Mihailovic's parents still live in Sydney, and she is a part of the Australian national team program. She was playing at the Youth World Championships in Perth when a former Sun Devils assistant spotted her and phoned ASU coach Todd Clapper. Clapper went to see her play in the Junior World Championships in Madrid, Spain and he was sold.
"I liked the way she shot the ball and had good speed and because she was a coach's kid, she knows the game really well," Clapper said. "She's smaller for a post-up player but I liked her versatility and after talking to her, I knew she had the right attitude because she sets her sights pretty high as far as the national team and wanting to be on the Olympic team."
Mihailovic has three years to prepare for her ultimate goal of making the Australian Olympic team, but she is hoping to compete in the world championships in July in Budapest, Hungary.
"I knew when I first started playing water polo that I wanted to be in the Olympics," said Mihailovic, who followed her dad and brother to the pool in Turkey, but could only practice with boys at first because there were no girls teams. "I have three years and there is always progress to make with the little things I need to improve to make the bigger changes. I know I need to be higher out of the water and when I'm tired I still need to make good choices. It will be cool to make the next step."
More immediately, Mihailovic is trying to get the Sun Devils through the MPSF Championships April 28-30 in Los Angeles, and to the NCAA Tournament on May 12 in Indianapolis. The MPSF will only put its top four teams into the NCAA Tournament despite the fact that the top five ranked teams in the nation all hail from that conference: No 1 Stanford, No. 2 USC, No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 ASU and No. 5 Cal.
"Sometimes it feels really unfair but it gives us determination," Mihailovic said. "If we can get there we know we can really do a lot because we have played all these hard games against top teams.
"We have made really progress this season. We're not ready for the season to be over so we're all excited to play."
Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter