Sharpsburg resident Natalie Pluskota placed second in the Southern Junior Indoor Open tennis tournament in Louisville, KY over Thanskgiving. She played in six matches and her only loss came in the finals. In a three hour battle in the championship match, Pluskota lost the first set, went down 5-3 in the second set and rallied to win 7-5 before losing the final set 6-1.

Pluskota is a sophomore at Northgate High School. She ran varsity cross county and finished 62nd at the state meet. She is currently the varsity starting point guard for her high school, and plans to play varsity tennis in the spring. She plans to play tennis at the division one collegiate level after high school.

Pluskota is one of a handful of players to have a one handed backhand. She started playing tennis at the age of four adn is currently ranked 10th in Georgia, 50th in the south and 315th in the nation. She hopes to finish the year in the top five in the state, the top 20 in the south and 250th in the nation. She has spent this year concentrating on her Georgia and Southern rankings and will begin to focus on her national ranking next year.