China native Nancy Jiang finds home, tennis success at Pitt-Greensburg

Nancy Jiang wants to be clear: Most of the Chinese food available in America is nothing like the cuisine in her homeland.

“The first time I went to the Panda Express and the orange chicken, what is that?” said the 19-year-old Pitt-Greensburg sophomore, unable to contain her laughter. “We don’t have orange chicken in China. We don’t ever use orange in a meal.”

Aside from the faux Chinese food, Jiang has found a lot to like during her two years in the U.S. She has a newfound love for macaroni and cheese and has become, in her words, “football curious.”

And at UPG, the young lady from the other side of the world has found the best of both worlds.

Growing up in Qingdao, a city of approximately 6 million on China’s northern coast, Jiang took up tennis at 5 years old. After a couple of years, she was convinced she wanted to play professionally. Her family found her a coach, with whom she worked two years, then she played for her city’s team for three years.

It soon became apparent, however, that she would not be her country’s next Li Na. So she turned her focus to her other passion: a career in medicine.

Jiang followed in the footsteps of her older brother, who attended college in the U.S. One of her high school teachers told her about Pitt’s renowned medical programs, but there was a problem: She still wanted to play tennis, and Pitt had discontinued its women’s team in 2019.

Enter Pitt-Greensburg, which offered a doorway to the university’s medical program as well as intercollegiate tennis.

“That’s the crazy part,” said Jiang, whose given name is Zichen. “I only applied to this college. Only Pitt-Greensburg. Everyone thought I was crazy. Even my teachers. … Once I started researching it, I fell in love with it.”

Jiang has been one of the Bobcats’ top players over her two seasons. As a freshman, she went 8-2 in singles, including 7-1 at No. 2, and 7-3 in doubles (6-3 at No. 2 with partner Summer Popella). During the recently concluded fall season, she was 6-4 at No. 3 singles and 8-2 at No. 1 doubles with Gabi Moder.

She and Moder were named to the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference first team at No. 1 doubles, and Jiang was second team at No. 3 singles.

First-year coach Deven Summers said he has been impressed by Jiang’s skill set. She is a consistent hitter and good ball-striker, he said, and the different spin on the left-hander’s shots can be problematic for opponents.

“She hits the ball with a lot of spin, which is always a good thing in tennis,” Summers said. “Being a lefty in college, especially at the D-III level, is a pretty big benefit to have. … Her ceiling is very high.”

Fitting in on the tennis court didn’t take long. Fitting in with a new culture and in a new country was a little more difficult.

Jiang said she wasn’t confident in her English when she arrived at UPG. Her roommate and tennis teammates helped smooth the transition.

“Back in China, I can talk more,” she said. “I was the funniest, most social one. But here, the language barrier made me so shy at first. But now I think I can talk a little bit fluent. My freshman roommate, she was amazing. She was my crash course in American culture.”

Tennis actually might not be Jiang’s best sport. Chess, she said, is considered a sport in China, and she is a nationally certified first-level player.

Also among her talents is the piano. She has been playing for 12 years and sometimes slips into the piano room on campus to play.

“It’s my therapy,” she said. “Happy? Play piano. Sad? Play piano.”

Jiang said she plans to stay at UPG to finish her undergrad degree so she can play tennis all four years. After that, she will move on to Pitt’s downtown campus to complete her nursing studies, and she said she likely will remain in the U.S. to pursue her career.

Maybe she didn’t get to become a pro tennis player, but Jiang is determined to make the most out of her remaining competitive years.

“I would say I’m kind of happy with my performance,” she said. “Division III athletics means academics come first. … We don’t get that much time to train. We need to focus more on the major stuff. … But I still give it my all every time I step on the court.”