Women's Tennis Earns First Ranked Recruiting Class in a Decade
TUCSON, Ariz. - Head Coach Ryan Stotland brought in the first ranked recruiting class for women's tennis in over a decade, placing No. 17 in the Tennis Recruiting Networks Rankings. This is Stotland's highest ranked recruiting class during his tenure at the University of Arizona, and the highest since Arizona had the No. 15 ranked recruiting class in 2010, when Coach Stotland was an assistant coach with the program.
"We are extremely excited to welcome all of these talented and amazing young women to our team." said Coach Stotland. "They have aspirations to help make Arizona Tennis one of the powerhouse programs in the country. We know they will set a whole new standard for our program of where we want to go and we know they are ready to Bear Down!"
Women's tennis brought in five new recruits to place Arizona in the top 20: Blue chip Midori Castillo-Meza, five-star recruits Mary Grace Armistead and Parker Fry, and four-star recruits Kayla Meraz and Belen Nevenhoven. Castillo-Meza is the highest ranked American recruit signed during Stotland's tenure, ranking as high as third in the United States. Having a UTR of 10.59, she was named Hispanic Athlete of the Year in Baja California, Mexico as well as the winner of the Winter Nationals in Tucson in 2018 and a finalist in doubles at the Orange Bowl in 2019.
Mary Grace Armistead has been consistenly ranked in the top 25 of the U.S. recruiting class, reaching the semifinals in singles and doubles of the prestigious Eddie Herr International Junior Championships, advancing to the round of 16 of the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships and reaching the semifinals of the USTA National Level 2 tournament in February. Parker Fry recently won a $4,000 prize money tournament in Newport Beach, where she cruised to straight set victories in every match and won a wildcard into a Professional event. She also has been a semi-finalist at the 34th Los Caballeros tournament, the USTA National Level 3 Tournament in Las Vegas as well as a junior tournament in Yamasaki, Japan. She is currently the 62nd ranked recruit by the Tennis Recruiting Network.
Four-star recruit Kayla Meraz won the Level 2 USTA tournament in Fullerton, Calif. in 2019 and was the first player from her high school to make the final of the CIF tournament. She also won numerous other USTA tournaments throughout her successful junior career. Belen Nevenhoven has competed against the top players in the country and has been on the verge of beating many top ranked players. She also is also a talented doubles player as she reached the quarterfinals of one of the biggest national tournaments in the country.