May 5, 2005

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Lady Tiger tennis head coach Charlotte Peterson put the wraps on her 2005-06 recruiting class with the signing of Katerina Kuznetsova, Peterson announced Thursday. Kuznetsova will come to the Lady Tiger program from Krasnogorsk in the Moscow region of Russia.

Kuznetsova is the daughter of Alexander Kutnetsov and Svetlana Kutnetsova and is currently the No. 1 ranked player in her region and the No. 97 ranked player in all of Russia. She has played tennis for seven years and has played in both singles and doubles finals in Moscow region tournaments.

"Katerina is a player who will help us in terms of depth right away," Peterson said. "We ended up with just six healthy players at the end of this year, and we want to rebuild our team to its former level of success and I think this signing will help that."

Kuznetsova plans on majoring in International Business or Management and said she choose the Lady Tigers because of the coach, location and scholarship offer.

Kuznetsova will join two other Lady Tiger signees, both of whom are currently at the Nick Bolliterri Academy in Florida, Ekin Zafir and Flavia Russo.