Women’s Tennis Recruiting Class Ranked No. 7 Nationally Among Mid-Majors

TennisRecruiting.net Top 25 Mid-Major Recruiting Classes

University of Portland women’s tennis has been recognized for having the No. 7-ranked recruiting class among all mid-majors in the United States, TennisRecruiting.net announced on Wednesday. Head coach Susie Campbell-Gross signed a pair of WTA-ranked players last month, the first-ever recruits to enter the program with a world ranking.

Portland is the second highest rated West Coast Conference school behind only BYU (No. 3). The rankings, which include 27 NCAA Division I conferences as well as all programs outside of Division I, listed Houston’s three-player class at No. 1.

Lucia Butkovska (Bratislava, Slovakia) and Jelena Lazarevic (Lazarevac, Serbia) each signed National Letters of Intent with Portland last month.

Butkovska has been ranked as high as No. 652 in the WTA singles rankings and is currently at No. 867. As a junior player on the ITF circuit, Butkovska reached No. 22 in the world rankings and won numerous singles and doubles championships while competing in major events.

Lazarevic had a career-high WTA ranking of 1,016 in August of 2012 and advanced to the semifinals of the WTA Futures event in Pirot, Serbia. Her best victories have come against Bianca Koch (No. 601), Oceane Adam (No. 683) and Dejana Radanovic (No. 792).

Butkovska and Lazarevic will join a talented returning group that includes sophomore Maja Mladenovic, who earned All-West Coast Conference honors after posting a team-best 13 singles wins at the No. 1 position. Tori Troesch, Saroop Dhatt and Emily Gould also had solid freshman campaigns to build upon for the Pilots.