Although the women’s tennis team is on a roll, having posted a 7-2 record heading into the Ivy season, its future looks even better. The Red’s recruiting class of 2011 was recently ranked 15th in the nation by the Tennis Recruiting Network.
According to head coach Laura Glitz, the Tennis Recruiting Network ranks high school student athletes on their wins and strength of their schedules.
“The USTA rankings now are based on a point system,” Glitz said. “If you play a lot of tournaments you could be ranked higher, but you might not necessarily be better than players ranked below you. [The Tennis Recruiting Network] takes all your recruits and ranks your classes according to the level of the players that are coming to your school next year.”
Joining the Red next year will be Kei Kinoshita, Sinziana Chis, Ruxandra Dumitrescu and Catherine Yoo.
Kinoshita, who hails from Purchase, N.Y., is currently ranked third in the under-18 girls’ division of the USTA’s Eastern section, which covers New York State and part of New Jersey. In the USTA’s national under-18 girls’ rankings, she holds the No. 82 spot.
Chis is from Vancouver, B.C. and has played her way to the top of the under-18 rankings in British Columbia. She also is ranked second in the Pacific Northwest and won the British Columbia indoor provincials last year.
Dumitrescu, a Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. native, currently ranks 95th in girls’ under-18 singles in the nation and formally held the top ranking in the girls under-16 division of the USTA Eastern section. She played No. 1 singles for her varsity team for six years and is still undefeated in her high school career.
Yoo comes from Irvine, Calif. and currently holds the No. 27 rank in the USTA Southern California section, one of the nation’s toughest divisions.
“The girls in this ranking class are all early decision recruits,” Glitz said. “There will be another ranking of classes soon once the regular decision signing takes place, and we’ll have six recruits total.”
Also joining the Red next year are Melissa-Rose Orteza of Chino Hills, Calif. and Anna Sofine of Riverside, Calif.
“I’m really excited in general about our recruiting class because they are all great girls — nice, respectful, great at tennis, and hard-working,” said sophomore Tammy John, who played doubles as a junior with Dumitrescu in the Eastern section.
The 2011 recruiting class is the largest in recent history, which speaks to the growth and success of the women’s program. The team currently has two seniors, three juniors, four sophomores and one freshman. John attributes the size of the recruiting class to the team’s unity as well as its recent success.
“I think the fact that our team is playing really well right now and that we’re all so close helped all the girls decide to come here,” John said. “A lot of them visited when we had team dinners and saw how close we all are and how much fun we have together. I think they’ll fit in very well with all of us next year, and they definitely seemed like Cornell women’s tennis players when I met them.”