BATON ROUGE – LSU women’s tennis players Mary Jeremiah, Ariel Morton, Ella Taylor, and Joana Vale Costa will be acknowledged during halftime of Saturday’s LSU football game against ULM for their academic achievements from last semester. These student-athletes all earned at least a 3.0 GPA in the spring of 2014.
Mary Jeremiah accumulated an overall 1-1 singles record with a 0-1 dual record and a 1-0 tournament record after she battled an injury throughout her junior season. As a sophomore though, Jeremiah claimed the No. 2 singles spot in all but six dual matches. She also held the top spot in all but two dual matches alongside doubles partner Ariel Morton.
As a senior in 2014, Ariel Morton posted a 2-4 overall singles record and a 5-10 overall doubles record. She also amassed a 2-3 tournament record in singles during her senior campaign.
Ella Taylor garnered a 15-10 overall singles record and a 9-12 overall doubles record as a sophomore last season. Taylor put together a 5-3 tournament singles record and a 10-7 dual singles record. She also held a 2-1 record at the No. 2 spot.
Joana Vale Costa posted an 11-8 overall singles record as a freshman, 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.
Along with this academic achievement, Vale Costa also recently received the honors of being ranked 61st nationally in the ITA preseason singles standings and was invited to play in the 2014 Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships.
The Tigers hope that this combination of success on the court and in the classroom will help translate to a successful 2014-15 season.
The Lady Tigers open up the fall season Friday, Sept. 19 at the Georgia Tech Invitational.
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