Nov. 20, 2008

Fairfax, Va. - The George Mason University women's tennis coach, Stephen Curtis, has announced the signing of two recruits to National Letters of Intent. Kiersten Pappas and Alison Wingo, both outstanding high school players, will join the Patriots in the fall of 2009.

Pappas, a Waterford, Va. native, is completing her senior year at Loudoun Valley High School. She enters her senior year as the Virginia state championship runner-up in singles competition. In each of the past three seasons Pappas has garnered Washington Post All Met honorable mention awards.

In the past year Pappas has been ranked as high as the fourth in the Virginia 18's rankings and as high as 15th in the Mid-Atlantic region. She has been ranked as one of the top 100 players in the region since 2003, reaching as high as 11th. "As the Virginia State High School runner-up from last year, Kiersten has a very strong all court game that is combined with great consistency and accuracy," said Coach Curtis explaining the strengths of Pappas game.

Wingo will be coming to Mason after spending the past two years training at the International Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Fla. As a sophomore, Wingo accomplished an extremely rare feat. After competing for the Hampton Roads Academy team that won the Virginia state championship she moved to Florida and won the state title there for American Heritage High School. "Alison brings to Mason an aggressive baseline game as well as a tremendous amount of high level team experience from her multiple state titles and her time at the International Tennis Academy," said Coach Curtis' commenting on what the addition of Wingo will mean to Mason.

Coach Curtis, "I am very excited about these signees. Both Alison and Kiersten should make an immediate impact to the Mason program and exemplify the attitude and work ethic I look for from players."