Deacs Add Zalewski to Nationally-Ranked Class
6/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Tennis Recruiting Network Rankings
By Andrew Wilson, Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeMTennis)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest women's tennis head coach Jeff Wyshner has announced the addition of Joanna Zalewski to the team's 2015 recruiting class. With Zalewski joining Anna Ulyashchenko and Emma Davis in the class, Wake Forest checked in at No. 7 nationally in Monday's Tennis Recruiting Network class rankings, the highest spring ranking in program history for the Demon Deacons.
Zalewski will come to Winston-Salem from Linden High School in Linden, New Jersey. A blue-chip recruit, Zalewski is ranked as the 39th-best recruit in the country while checking in at No. 8 in the Middle Atlantic region and No. 2 in the state of New Jersey. She checked in as high as No. 18 in the country earlier this spring. Zalewski joins Wake Forest as the third five-star recruit and second blue-chip player in the class, as Ulyashchenko is a blue-chip recruit while Davis is a five-star recruit.
"It is exciting to have Joanna, Emma and Anna get this level of respect as an incoming group," Wyshner said. "All three have been considered among the top 20 juniors in the country over the last couple years in high school and I am really excited to get started with them to see what kind of impact they can now have on the college game. College tennis is a big jump from junior tennis so it will take some time and a lot of work, but I believe that in four years this group could be graduating having done some amazing things as Demon Deacons."
The 2015 class is just the 10th year Tennis Recruiting Network has ranked incoming classes. The previous best rank for the Deacs was in spring 2013 when Wyshner's class was ranked No. 8 in the nation. That class included current Demon Deacons Kimmy Guerin, Samantha Asch and Luisa Fernandez.
Wake Forest's class ranks third in the ACC behind Duke (No. 2) and North Carolina (No. 5). The four North Carolina schools in the ACC are each in the top nine of Tennis Recruiting Network's release, as NC State checked in at No. 9.
"Stringing together four top 25 recruiting classes - and especially having two top 10 classes in the last three years - really puts us in position to compete with some of the best teams in the country," Wyshner said. "Next fall, we'll have seven former blue chips on this team. There are only eight programs that have been in the top 10 twice in the last three years and six of the other seven this year will finish in the top 25. That is where we want to be."
