Islanders add to elite recruiting class

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Texas A&M Corpus Christi women's tennis team has announced the signings of three elite incoming student athletes. Director of Tennis Steve Moore added freshmen Vanessa Reinicke, Mariya Shumeika and Myu Kageyama to the Islanders' 2018-19 roster.

"I am very proud of this recruiting class and I thought associate head coaches Aurelien Tave and Olga Bazhanova worked tirelessly to land this group," said Moore. "I really want to credit them. These three players added with Camille Townsend and Lucie Devier have us very excited about the future of Islander tennis. I am proud that we signed players of this level without having to sacrifice character, because these five individuals have top notch character, attitude and work ethic."

Last fall, the Islanders added Townsend and Devier who both carry a 10 UTR. These five highly regarded prospects make this one of the top classes to arrive in Corpus Christi under Moore.

The Islanders won their third-straight Southland Conference regular season title in 2018 and the team had advanced to the NCAA Championship Tournament in two of the past three season. Despite losing senior captains Hortense Boscher and Jelena Dzinic, Moore is confident that with this year's strong recruiting class, the team is in good position to challenge for a fourth trip to the NCAAs in 2019.

Vanessa Reinecke - Berlin, Germany
A 10.2 UTR player, Reinecke is one of the top junior players in Germany. 

"I was incredibly happy to sign Vanessa," said Moore. "She has the potential to be a great collegiate player and perhaps have a career as a professional after college. She is another player with world class experience that was highly recruited. What I liked most about her is her character, work ethic and motivation. We think she is a great fit for the Islanders."
 
Mariya Shumeika - Minsk, Belarus
Shumeika earned the No. 2 rank for 18 girls in Belarus girls 18 and was member of the junior elite training group.

"Mariya had an extremely high ranking for a very competitive tennis country," Moore said. "Bringing in someone with an elite world class ranking will elevate this team. We felt Mariya shared all the values of the Islanders as she seemed to be very highly motivated in both tennis and in school. She has great character and work ethic. The more we talked to her, the more we knew she was a great fit for our team."
 
Myu Kageyama - Chigasaki, Kanagawa  Japan
Kageyama becomes the second elite Japanese junior player the Islanders have signed in as many years. Last season, men's student-athlete Kyohei Yamanaka was named the Southland Conference's Freshman of the Year and garnered first team all-conference honors.

"Myu is one of the top ranked juniors in Japan," said Moore. "Every time we talk to her, we could tell that her discipline, work ethic and team attitude were exactly the attributes the Islanders look for so much in a recruit. She is very tough, hard working and chose the islanders over numerous big schools because she felt we were the right fit. That means a lot."