Meet the Recruits: Caltech Women’s Tennis

Caltech women’s tennis is set to add two incoming freshmen which make up the program’s first recruiting class to receive votes in the annual tennisrecruiting.net rankings.

The class consists of:

Alexandra Bodrova (Russia/Kurchatovskya School)
Angelica Zhou (Temple City, Calif./Arcadia High School)

“This incoming class is one of program’s best and I’m really looking forward to working with these young ladies,” Head Coach Mandy Gamble said. “I’m looking forward to seeing their achievements both on and off the court over their respective careers at Caltech. They are both a great fit here and will be valuable members of our young and rising team.”

Alexandra Bodrova
Russia / Kurchatovskaya School
5-4 / Righthanded

Bodrova comes to Pasadena having won 17 national tournaments and 42 combined national regional Olympiads across multiple STEM and other subjects in her native Russia. She earned a scholarship for admission to the Central Sports Club of the Army, is a two-time Sci-Tech national team champion, placed second at the international level of the Sci-Tech European Challenge and earned third place at the National Junior Innovation Tournament in 2015.

“Alexandra’s athleticism and tenacious all-court game make her a tough competitor,” Gamble said. “Although she has taken a break from competitive tennis recently, there is no better place to train than Southern California and against SCIAC competition, and our coaching staff will get her back up to speed in no time.”

Angelica Zhou
Temple City, Calif. / Arcadia High School
5-7 / Righthanded

Zhou comes to Caltech from right down the road at Arcadia High School as the No. 257 ranked recruit in the country, No. 41 recruit in the state of California and the program’s second-highest ranked recruit in history, having improved her stock in each of the last three years. A two-time team MVP, individual league singles finalist and doubles champion, she was also selected All-Area First Team by the Pasadena Star News. Zhou is an AP Scholar with distinction and a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, in addition to winning a gold medal in the National French 3 and French 4 Contests. She has also been a member of the Science Bowl and Physics teams as well as the French National Honor Society.

“Angelica is the consummate team player; as a star on Arcadia High School’s team, she knows how to lead and give her best effort to help the team,” Gamble said. “I am particularly impressed with her ability to attack and willingness to move forward. She will add strength to the top of our line up and help us be even more competitive in the conference after a big step forward last season.”

Bodrova and Zhou join a squad which recorded its highest place in the SCIAC in a decade and did not include a single senior. Rookie stars Kana Moriyama (Redmond, Wash. / Redmond) and All-SCIAC Second Team selection Julia Reisler (Plano, Texas / Greenhill) each recorded 11 singles wins playing primarily #2 and #3 as the squad defeated a pair of conference opponents, including the 7-2 victory over Chapman in the SCIAC Championships.