A nationally ranked tennis standout, Catherine built a career defined by athletic excellence, academic achievement, leadership, and sportsmanship.
Long before Catherine Pastoor, PE, SE, began solving complex structural engineering challenges, she was developing a similar skill on the tennis court: studying the situation, adjusting her strategy, and finding a way forward.
On September 14, Catherine (who competed under her maiden name, Catherine Newman) was inducted into the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame during a ceremony at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. She joined 10 other athletes, coaches, and contributors in the Hall’s 21st class.
The setting made the recognition especially meaningful. Catherine recalled attending ACC Tournament games at the Coliseum and said it was “really awesome to be honored in such a setting.”
The honor recognizes a tennis career that made Catherine one of North Carolina’s most accomplished young players, and one that was distinguished as much by academic achievement, leadership, and sportsmanship as it was by victories.
At Page High School in Greensboro, Catherine was named Metro 4A Tennis Player of the Year four times. She went undefeated during her junior and senior seasons as the Pirates captured consecutive state dual-team championships, and she won an individual state title in 2003. A talented multisport athlete, she also earned all-state honors twice as a midfielder on Page’s soccer team. She graduated as the school’s valedictorian in 2006.
Beyond high school competition, Catherine won the USTA National 16s Championship in 2004, earned a wild card into the Junior US Open, and rose to No. 1 in the USTA 18s national rankings.
During an interview at the Hall of Fame ceremony, Catherine drew a clear connection between tennis and structural engineering: neither offers a one-size-fits-all solution. Both require analyzing the conditions, adapting the approach, and continuing to work through the problem.
“I’m now an engineer, and I like the problem-solving side of it,” Catherine said. “[In tennis] depending on what type of player you’re playing against, you have different tactics. Trying to figure out the best way to win that day is not necessarily the same way you would play to win the next day against a different opponent.”
She was also drawn to the persistence the sport demands. “I like that there is no clock,” she said. “You can be down match point, you can be three hours in, and you still have a chance to win.”
That willingness to stay with a challenge, reassess the variables, and find the right solution has carried naturally from the tennis court into her engineering career.
That combination of athletics and academics led Catherine to Vanderbilt University, where she could pursue civil engineering while competing for one of the nation’s top women’s tennis programs. She earned All-SEC recognition in each of her four seasons (first-team honors twice and second-team honors twice) and completed her Vanderbilt singles career with a 106–51 record.
As a senior, Catherine was named the SEC Women’s Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She also became the first Vanderbilt women’s tennis player to receive the national ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship, an honor recognizing excellence in sportsmanship, leadership, academics, extracurricular involvement, and tennis.
After earning her civil engineering degree from Vanderbilt, Catherine completed a master’s degree in structural engineering at Stanford University. She joined SK&A in 2011 and is now an Associate with the firm.
The Hall of Fame induction was also a meaningful family moment. Catherine attended the ceremony with her parents, grandparents, and three children. She credited her family, particularly the parents and grandparents who helped her travel to tournaments across the country, with making her tennis career possible.
“Now, being a parent myself of three kids, trying to manage a career and get them places, it’s remarkable what they were able to do with four of us,” she said.
She was especially grateful for the opportunity to share the recognition with her children and show them a part of her life that took place years before they were born.
