BATON ROUGE – Joana Vale Costa of the LSU women’s tennis team came in at No. 61 on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) preseason singles rankings released on Monday.
The sophomore from Lisbon, Portugal can add this to her resume’ which includes a host of awards from last season.
As a freshman, Vale Costa posted an 11-8 overall singles record, playing 24 of 26 dual matches at the No. 1 spot. During her debut season, Vale Costa reached a season-high ranking of No. 69 singles, which is the highest an LSU player has been ranked in singles since Whitney Wolf in 2011. Vale Costa also garnered three wins over nationally ranked opponents.
Through her efforts on the court, Vale Costa accumulated the honors of All-SEC Second Team, All-SEC Freshman Team, ITA Southern Region Rookie of the Year and All-Louisiana Second Team.
Along with her preseason singles ranking, Vale Costa was also selected Monday to compete in the 2014 Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships.
Vale Costa has been placed in the Qualifying Singles bracket to start the tournament and is joined by sophomore Abigail Owens and senior Noel Scott who will also make appearances in the tournament.
Owens is currently slotted in the alternate list for prequalifying singles, while Scott will be Vale Costa’s partner in the prequalifying doubles bracket.
The Lady Tigers open up the fall season Friday, Sept. 19, at the Georgia Tech Invitational.
For more information on the LSU Women’s Tennis team, fans can follow the Lady Tigers on Twitter @LSUwten and @LSUJuliaSell and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/LSUwten.