Nov. 24, 2009
CHAPEL HILL --- Tessa Lyons of Wallingford, Pa., and Laura Slater of Frimley, England, have signed National Letters of Intent to play tennis at the University of North Carolina, head coach Brian Kalbas announced Tuesday.
Lyons is rated among the top 50 prep players nationally and is considered a five-star recruit by TennisRecruiting.net. Currently the No. 1 player in the Middle States section, Lyons has won six of seven sectional championship finals in her career. She is a three-time winner of the 16s sectional championship and has won three 18s doubles titles.
At the high school level, Lyons has played at the No. 1 singles position for four seasons and was the 2008 PIAA AAA state singles champion. She followed that with an appearance in the state finals as a senior and lost just one match in her final two high school seasons.
Slater is one of the top junior players in England, reaching a high U18 ranking of No. 5 in the United Kingdom. She was a junior national doubles champion with Hannah James at the U13 level and reached the top 20 in the Tennis Europe rankings as a U14.
A former No. 1 player in the UK at the U16 level, Slater has represented her country in the Summer Cup and the Maureen Connolly Trophy 40th Anniversary event. She also competed in the junior event of Wimbledon in 2008 and will compete in the British Tour Masters this winter.
"We are really excited that Tessa and Laura have made the decision to join our program," Kalbas said. "They are both very athletic and competitive players, and I think they will be real factors in the continued success of the program. Both young ladies are tremendously skilled and very aggressive in how they take the game to their opponents, and I think that will make the transition to the college game much easier for them."
