And the rich get richer—Long Beach State tennis head coach Jenny Hilt-Costello has announced the signing of Jaklin Alawi and Klaudia Malenovska to letters of intent for the current signing period. The two highly-rated world juniors join fall signee Anna Jeczmionka in the Beach Tennis recruiting class for 2009-10.
Hailing from Sofia, Bulgaria, Alawi is the winner of three ITF world junior singles titles and two world junior doubles titles. Ranked as high as 170 in the ITF, Alawi has posted wins for current of incoming Division I players at several universities recently ranked in the top 30. The No. 1 ranked U18 junior in Bulgaria, Alawi plans to pursue a degree in Tourism and Hotel Management.
Malenovska has ranked as high as No. 54 in the ITF junior rankings, and has played in the Wimbledon and French Open junior championships. Klaudia has 55 junior and 24 women’s ITF victories in international play, and has victories over competition currently in the Top 25. The freshman will arrive from Bratislava, Slovak Republic and will come to Long Beach State seeking a degree in film.
“We are very excited that Klaudia and Jaklin have chosen to study and play here at Long Beach State,” said Hilt-Costello. “Both girls have a lot of experience and success during their junior careers, and also recently in the women’s championships. They both also have excellent academic marks with 3.50 or better high school GPA’s. Joining Anna Jeczmionka, I anticipate all three will fit right into our program tradition of success on the court and in the classroom.”
“We put together a strong recruiting class that took us into the Top 25 in 2006,” added Hilt-Costello. “This class could be as strong.”
The trio joins a program that has seen unprecedented success at Long Beach State, winning six consecutive Big West Conference Championships, taking six straight trips to the NCAA Tournament and earning four consecutive ITA National Academic Team awards.
The 2009-2010 squad will also return three players that earned All-Conference accolades in 2008-09 – sophomore Deborah Armstrong and freshmen Rachel Manasse and Anais Dallara. The 49ers will have to deal with the graduation of Hannah Grady, but with these new additions to the program, the future’s looking bright at the Beach.
From LBSU reports