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WTEN 22-23 Recruiting Class

Women's Tennis

Women’s Tennis Recruiting Class Ranked Top-25 in Mid-Major Poll

MARIETTA, Ga. – Lipscomb's women's tennis program is set to bring in an impressive recruiting class for the 2022-23 season. The quartet was ranked 23rd in the country by TennisRecruitingNetwork.net's Mid-Major Level Poll.
 
One of just two ASUN teams to earn a spot in the top-25, the four new members of the squad include Sofiia Paladi, Anait Arutyunyan, Taisia Yakunina, and Alina Cherniaieva and make up the highest ranked recruiting class in the program's division I era.
 
Sofiia Paladi joins Lipscomb's team from Odessa, Ukraine ranked #8 in the Ukraine and #545 in the ITF rankings. Her accolades include status as a semi-finalist for the "President's Cup", a quarter-finalist in the Championship of Ukraine, and a finalist in singles and doubles in the under-18 section in an All-Ukrainian qualifying competition.
 
In addition, she won the adults section of the Championship of Odessa region and won the Championship of Lviv.
 
Anait Arutyunyan comes into the program ranked #87 in Spain and with a top Universal Tennis Ranking of 9.81. She is a three-time winner of the Championship of Malaga and the winner of the VII Open International Tennis's Memorial Manolo Fernandez.
 
Arutyunyan is also a two-time winner of the MARCA Junior Cup for the under-18 section and the winner of the Championship of Istra.
 
Taisia Yakunina, originally from Khabarovsk, Russia, moved to Barcelona, Spain thirteen years ago and brings a highest ITF ranking of #649 and a highest national Spanish ranking of #77 to the team. She was a 2019 finalist in the Marca jóvenes promesas Sevilla as well as the Marca jóvenes promesas Castellón and the 2019 champion at the Marca jóvenes promesas Montemar.
 
The third new Bison to the squad, Yakunina was one of the final eight players in the Marca Master, a 2020 semi-finalist of the Champion of Cataluña junior section, and a 2021 finalist at the J5 Senegal Itf.
 
Alina Cherniaieva rounds out the incoming quartet ranked #23 in the Ukraine and #23 in the under-18 section for the Ukraine. A 2017 team member for Ukraine's Team European Juniors Championships, Cherniaieva has collected more than 30 titles in her career so far such as singles and doubles champion at the Championship of Kharkiv for Grade 1, a doubles winner at the Championship of Odessa for both the adults section and Grade A level.

She was a doubles winner and singles finalist at the Championship of Odessa, a finalist in the adults and Grade A sections of the Championship at Dnipro, a finalist at of the under-18 and Grade A sections of the Championship of Kiev, and a doubles semi-finalist at the Championship of Ukraine. Cherniaieva was also one of the top eight players in the Ukraine with her singles finalist status at Masters.  
 
Embarking on her tenth year at the helm of the squad, head coach Jamie Aid will gather the squad back in Nashville in early August to begin training for the 2022-23 season.
 
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