BATON ROUGE, La. – Gaby Rivera, a native of Guatemala City, Guatemala, has signed on with the LSU women’s tennis team ahead of the 2024 dual season, head coach Taylor Fogleman announced on Friday morning.
“We are thrilled that Gaby will be joining our program this January!” Fogleman said. “She is a young lady with tremendous tennis ability and one of the most selfless people I’ve had the privilege of meeting. She not only has short term goals for her tennis career and for the team, but she has long term ones on how she intends to support and help the people of her native country Guatemala. We’re humbled she’s decided to come to LSU and I know she will make an incredible impact on our program and community.”
Rivera is calling Baton Rouge after spending 2023 at the University of Miami. A familiar face awaits in Baton Rouge for Rivera as she once again teams up with Maya Tahan after the two spent the 2023 season together as Hurricanes. Prior to her time in Miami, Rivera was enrolled at Galileo University in her home country of Guatemala.
The Guatemalan has been active in various tournaments the past few years, earning individual glory with a singles title at an ITF W15 Cancun title in 2022 and making multiple singles and doubles quarterfinals and semi-finals in other ITF tournaments. For country, Rivera is a key player for Guatemala and has represented her country in numerous international tournaments. Most notably, Rivera has competed for Guatemala at the prestigious Billy Jean King Cup four straight tournaments in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
She enjoyed a decorated playing career as a junior, earning a bronze medal at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Championships and two gold medals at the 2015 Central American Games. Additionally, she also competed in three of the four junior Grand Slams, making appearances at the junior French Open, U.S. Open and Wimbledon.
Rivera has risen as high as No. 705 in the WTA singles rankings and peaked at No. 35 as a junior in the ITF’s junior rankings.
She is LSU’s second fall signing set to enroll in January, joining blue-chip recruit Kenna Erickson who signed for the Tigers last month. The two new players will join up with the team in January and begin preparations for the 2024 dual season, which opens with a doubleheader at the LSU Tennis Complex at 10 a.m. CT and 3 p.m. CT on Saturday, January 20 when Louisiana Tech and Southeastern Louisiana come to town.
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