After suffering a season-ending loss to No. 19 Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the IU women's tennis team shifted gears to focus on next season. On Thursday, the team announced that freshmen Paula Gutierrez and Kim Schmider will attend IU and join the Hoosiers for the 2013-14 season.
IU Coach Lin Loring said that he is excited for the women to join the team next fall.
"They are both excellent students and tennis players," he said. "Both girls have claimed their country's No. 1 national ranking in their age group, which is quite an accomplishment in any sport. They will be an outstanding addition to our team."
Gutierrez hails from Alaurin del la Torre, Spain, where the International Tennis Federation ranked her the No. 1 player in the country for girls under 18 in 2012. Her ITF world rankings peaked at No. 158 on June 18, 2012.
According to her ITF profile, she began playing tennis when she was seven, she plays right-handed, and her favorite type of court is one with a hard surface.
In 2012, she won two singles and two doubles ITF titles. She finished first in both singles and doubles the 11 Sanxenxo International Junior Tournament, in singles at the Malta ITF U/18 World Rankings Tournament, and in doubles at the 1 Torneo Internacional Junior de Pontevedra.
Gutierrez enters IU with a 3.9 GPA and she plans on studying management and international business in the Kelley School of Business.
Kim Schmider will also travel across the Atlantic Ocean to attend IU next fall. She is from Cheshire, England, where she represented her school in netball and hockey. Schmider was a captain on her school's netball team and she played in the national finals.
Similarly to Gutierrez, Schmider attainted the No. 1 ranking in her country for girls under 18. She is the No. 1 player in the state of Cheshire and the current under 18 junior and open state champion. On the junior ITF circuit, Schmider won the doubles title in Edinburgh and played in the doubles final in Nottingham. She also reached the doubles semifinals in the 2012 National Championships. Her world ITF rankings peaked at No. 809 on January 1, 2013.
Gutierrez and Schmider will replace graduating seniors Leslie Hureau and Jithmie Jayawickrema on the Hoosiers' roster. IU will have three seniors--Sophie Garre, Kayla Fujimoto, and Gabrielle Rubenstein--and four juniors--Katie Klyczek, Carolyn Chupa, Alecia Kauss, and Shannon Murdy--in addition to the two incoming freshmen.
With the addition of the Gutierrez and Schmider, Indiana will pick up from where it left off this spring, as the No. 41 team in the country and the sixth best team by record in the Big Ten.
