Joyce Martinez’s coach calls the Sacramento State women’s tennis standout “the energizer,” and for good reason.

Martinez powered her way through the competition to post winning records in each of her four seasons with the Hornets − and she did it while battling a potentially debilitating chronic disease that nearly left her in a wheelchair.

Last year, Martinez became one of the more than five million people worldwide who struggle with rheumatoid arthritis. A chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that affects the joints, most commonly in the hands, feet and wrists, rheumatoid arthritis causes pain, swelling and stiffness and can irreparably damage joints and surrounding bone. According to the Arthritis Foundation, rheumatoid arthritis can affect anyone (including children), but 70 percent of people with the disease are females. Onset usually occurs between the ages of 30 and 50.  

Martinez came to Sacramento State after being ranked as high as No. 2 in juniors tennis in her native Mexico. After earning first-team all-Big Sky Conference honors in her freshman campaign, she was in the midst of closing out her sophomore season on a nine-match winning streak leading up to the NCAA tournament when she first began experiencing symptoms.

She noticed that her feet would occasionally swell, but she didn’t think much about it. However, over the course of the summer and into the following fall, the pain and swelling persisted in her feet and hands and occurred with increasing frequency. After winter settled in, her condition worsened to the point where she had trouble gripping her racket. Just warming up for matches was extremely painful.  

“I would wake up with my fingers swollen. They would be hard to move. I thought someone was doing voodoo on me,” she joked. “I had to put my hands in hot water for 10 minutes so I could actually move them and grip my racket.”

Martinez downplayed the growing severity of the pain to her coach and medical staff not only because she suspected it would bring her season to an abrupt halt but also because she was captain of the team.

“I felt like I needed to play, and if I was complaining then the whole team would be complaining,” she said. “I never really told my coach how bad it was. If he asked me I’d say, ‘Yeah, it hurts but I can play, no problem.’ ”

But it became a problem too big to ignore the night before an away match against Oregon. The pain was so fierce, Martinez said, that she couldn’t sleep the night before and she knew there was no way she could hold her racket. So she went to her coach, withdrew from the upcoming match and revealed the extraordinary steps she’d been taking to continue competing.  

Martinez was referred to a doctor who ordered a battery of blood tests. The resulting diagnosis of RA caught her off guard. She knew little about the disease except that it could be physically debilitating.

In fact, doctors told her that had she gone much longer without treatment, she would have been in a wheelchair within months.

“That’s how bad it was,” Martinez said. “A wheelchair in six months.”

Even that knowledge didn’t quell her desire to get back on the court as soon as possible.

“I never thought my career was going to be over. I knew it was going to be harder,” she said. “I just explained to my rheumatologist that he needed to help me because I needed to play and I needed to play in one week.”

After initially prescribing medicines to help Martinez manage the disease well enough to finish out the season, during the summer her rheumatologist began treating her with Humira, a newly developed medicine that required her to give herself injections every two weeks.

Martinez, eager to try anything that would help her condition, felt an immediate difference.

“It worked perfectly,” she said. “Right now I don’t even think of myself as a person with RA.”

Nor did she play like one. During her senior campaign, Martinez posted a 19-6 record in singles and helped Sacramento State capture its eighth straight Big Sky tournament title and its first NCAA tournament victory in program history. In addition to maintaining a rigorous practice and competition schedule, she volunteered as a tennis coach and balanced a 17-credit course load.

The energizer was back – stronger and wiser.

Martinez said her experience has made her more appreciative of being able to doing things like go for a run. “Appreciate things when you have them,” she said. “Appreciate being healthy.”

Martinez, a communications major, will graduate in December.