Tennis adds four top freshmen
7/14/2010 2:30:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Anrinette Botha of South Africa, Imke Jagau of Namibia and Australians Natalie Petaia and Kayla Stevenson all will join the Sam Houston women's tennis program as freshmen this fall, Bearkat head coach Jim Giachino has announced.
Botha was a member of the South African Schools national team in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and holds a national junior girls 18 ranking of number five. She is from Pretoria and attended Afrikaanse Girls High School.
Jagau is the number one ranked junior in Namibia and participated in the African Junior Championships in both 2007 and 2008. She holds an ITF combined singles and doubles ranking of 530. Her home town is Windhoek, Namibia.
Petaia is ranked number six among Australian juniors and has won a natinoal doubles championship. She was selected for the Australian Junior Federation Cup team. She comes from Queensland.
Stevenson also is a national doubles champion and holds a number 62 national ranking. She is from Thornlands in Queensland.
"All four young talents bring a lot of talent and drive to our program," Giachino said. "As they learn the college game, they will all help our program move to the next level in the Southland Conference."
Sam Houston returns four letter winners off the 2010 squad that rolled up a 7-4 Southland Conference record including senior Cally Woerner from Boerne and sophomores Sheridan Currie from Mount Pleasant, Western Australia, Nadya Dubyanskaya from Togliatty, Samara Oblast, Russia and Tatyana Postnikova from Petropavlovsik, Kazahkstan.
