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Gaby Rivera Named to SEC Women’s Tennis Community Service Team

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Gaby Rivera Named to SEC Women’s Tennis Community Service Team

BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU women’s tennis team’s redshirt junior Gaby Rivera was named to the 2024 SEC Women’s Tennis Community Service Team, the league office announced on Thursday.

The SEC Community Service Team is a yearly team released by the conference in a continuing effort to recognize the accomplishments of student-athletes beyond the field of competition. All league-sponsored sports have had a Community Service Team since 2004, with at-large teams for men’s and women’s sports being chosen from 1999-2003.

Rivera, a native of Guatemala City, Guatemala, only came to Baton Rouge in January of this year but has already made herself known in the community both on the tennis courts and off them with her service. Rivera has shared her infectious joy and personality through various events, such as visiting Baton Rouge’s Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital and spending quality time with patients undergoing treatment in the hospital.

She has also participated in LSU Athletics’ Fan Day, an event where in partnership with the Delta Gamma sorority chapter of LSU, students from the local Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired (LSVI) get to meet LSU athletes and spend quality time with them. The LSVI students share the stories of their own life and potential challenges, listen to the life stories that the student athletes tell and have the chance to participate in fun activities and games with the student athletes.

In addition to her time at the children’s hospital and fan day, Rivera also has worked with the Big Buddy Program, a lead volunteer group in Baton Rouge that’s dedicated to building a community of mentoring and strong relationships with the youth in the local community. Rivera has done work with Big Buddy through their Mentoring program, a more personalized form of guidance that allows a person to serve as a mentor to a youth member at a more 1-on-1 level. The Mentor program offers the chance for a youth member to have a safe space to discuss goals, challenges or aspirations with a mentor that can help the youth member grow personally and professionally as well as shape the mentees’ perspectives, provide new opportunities and offer positive development overall.

Rivera has quickly settled in with the LSU athletics community and has become a popular person among her fellow athletes. She is a leading and active member of LSU’s Fellowship of Christian athletes, attending weekly meetings every Tuesday as well as the FCA’s weekly Bible Study on Monday nights. As a leader in the organization, she also participates in their “leadership huddles” every Sunday night ahead of their weekly activities on Monday and Tuesday.

Rivera and FCA also have a strong connection with different teams on campus, such as the LSU beach volleyball team. Before the beach volleyball team either travels for an away tournament or on Thursdays before a home tournament begins, Rivera and the FCA help put on “Together Nights” for the beach volleyball team that serves as a worship night for the team as well as getting a guest speaker.

Rivera and the LSU women’s tennis team will conclude the regular season this upcoming weekend at the LSU Tennis Complex, facing Alabama at 5 p.m. CT on Friday night before hosting No. 14 Auburn for Senior Day at noon CT on Sunday.

For more information on the LSU women’s tennis program follow the Tigers on X/Twitter @lsuwten , on Instagram @LSUWTen , and on www.Facebook.com/lsuwten.