CHICAGO - Leshia Gadacz (Toronto, Ontario/Loretto Abbey HS), Lorea Gamboa (Gamiz-Fika, Spain/Larramendi Ikastola) and Matea Roki (Etobicoke, Ontario/Silverthorn Collegiate Institute) have each signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Chicago State women's tennis program in the fall of 2014, CSU head coach head coach
Jack Barton has announced.
Gadacz was the Ace U18 Champion as a senior and a sophomore. She advanced to the quarterfinals in the Indoor U18 National Selection as a senior. As a junior, she advanced to the third round in singles and the quarterfinals in doubles at Outdoor Nationals. As a sophomore, she was the champions of Cutten U18 and Caledon U18 events. Academically, she was an honor roll student.
"Leshia will be a key part in doubles," Barton said. "She is solid at the net and has very sound fundamentals. In the last year, she improved tremendously in the Canadian singles rankings. Her highest in the 18 and Under is 40 in Canada and that makes us excited to have her."
Gamboa is currently ranked 161
st in Spain and has been ranked as high as 124
th. She was a Vizcaya Junior Champion, a semifinalist of Euskadi Junior and Senior Tournaments as well as a quarterfinalist of Marca's tournament in Zaragoza.
"Lorea is an outstanding student, a great athlete and a fantastic competitor," Barton said. "We expect her to be a great student athlete, and we believe she is going to raise the level of our team."
Roki is ranked 28
th in the latest girls under 18 Rogers Rankings. She earned a victory in the 2013 Ontario Tennis Association U18 Indoor Provincials.
"Matea is a very talented player with clean ground strokes from both sides," Barton said. "She has a very quiet but yet determined nature about her that will keep her mentally focused during matches."
The Cougars will open the 2014-15 campaign in September.
"I'm very pleased with our 2014 recruiting class," Barton said. "I have to give a lot of credit to (assistant coach)
Javier Bernabe. It is very hard to bring in one quality player for a tennis team so to help bring in three women shows the dedication and commitment he has to improving our tennis teams for the future."
