BATON ROUGE, La. — The Intercollegiate Tennis Association released its preseason Division I Women’s Singles Rankings Tuesday, and LSU earned three top-125 rankings, including two in the top 40.
Senior Joana Vale Costa is ranked No. 16 in the country, and sophomore Jessica Golovin is ranked No. 38. Senior Abby Owens rounds out the trio at No. 107.
Vale Costa, ranked as high as No.19 during the 2015-16 season, finished the season ranked No. 25 after an impressive 21-15 overall record and her second consecutive All-SEC First Team nomination.
Golovin completed her freshman season with a 22-18 overall record, including an 8-11 record against ranked opponents and was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team. She ended the 2016 season ranked No. 56 in the country and reached the second round of the NCAA Singles Championships.
Owens, who led the team in wins last season with a 32-8 record, became the 16th player in school history to reach the 30-win mark. Owens was unranked at the end of the season but begins her senior campaign just outside the preseason top 100.
The Lady Tigers begin their fall schedule Friday at the James Bonk Invite in Cary, N.C. before moving on to the ITA Women’s All-American Championships beginning Oct. 1, where Vale Costa has been selected to the singles main draw competition
Golovin and Owens have been selected to the singles qualifying and singles pre-qualifying competitions, respectively. Junior Ryann Foster has been named to the pre-qualifying alternate list.
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