BATON ROUGE — LSU women’s tennis head coach Tony Minnis announced Wednesday that three highly-recruited tennis players have signed national letters of intent in the spring signing period to play for the Lady Tigers in 2010-11.
Olivia Howlett of Bridgewater, England, Yvette Vlaar of Weert, Netherlands and Alexus Coates of Lithonia, Ga., have signed and will be eligible to compete in the fall.
“We’re really excited about this class. Olivia comes as a junior college national champion. Yvette has great international experience, and Alexus shows outstanding upside and potential,” head coach Tony Minnis said.
Howlett competed for Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Fla., where she claimed the NJCAA Women’s Tennis Singles National Championship. Howlett was also honored as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Player of the Year in the NJCAA and finished the season in the national rankings at No. 1 in singles and, partnered with Nachell Proctor, No. 3 in doubles. She also led her team to a third place finish in the NJCAA National Team Championships.
Vlaar, a five-star recruit, comes to LSU with a 28-24 career singles record and a 39-20 career doubles record. She finished fourth in the World Junior Tennis Finals and has listed as high as No. 310 in the world rankings.
Coates is also a five-star recruit who attended Ben Franklin Academy. After battling through injury, she finished her high school career with a 17-13 overall record.