June 3, 2008

NEW ORLEANS - Tulane University women's tennis head coach Terri Sisk announced Tuesday the signing of Republic of Georgia standout Mariam Kurdadze to her first signing class for the 2008-09 season.

Kurdadze, a native of Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, comes to Tulane as the number six player nationally and number two in her age group in Georgia. She also reached the No. 23 ranking in Europe in the under-16 age group, and is a member of the Georgian National Team. She has played World Tennis Association competition since 2005, and reached a WTA ranking of 1203 in Sept. 2007, as well as accumulating several world doubles tennis points.

"As a coach, it is so refreshing to meet and recruit a young lady who is as dedicated and hard working on the court and in the classroom as Mariam is," said Tulane head coach Terri Sisk. "She has already made goals for her four years at Tulane and I am completely confident she will succeed. Mariam has experienced tremendous success on the national and WTA circuit. Her work ethic, attitude and drive will ensure future success here at Tulane Tennis."

In addition to her prowess on the tennis court, Kurdadze also enjoys skiing, dancing, swimming, theatre, music and singing. She was the Georgian national champion in the under-12-14 swimming classification.

Kurdadze is the fourth signee for Tulane's tennis program, which will return in the fall after a three-year hiatus, joining Lindsay Dvorak of St. Petersburg, Fla., Marcela Fonseca of Bogota, Colombia and Caroline Gerber of Vienna, W.Va.

Name	Cl.	Exp.	Hometown	High School/Previous School
Lindsay Dvorak	Fr.	HS	St. Petersburg, Fla	St. Petersburg HS
Marcela Fonseca	Fr.	HS	Bogota, Colombia	Colegro Mayorde Los Andes
Caroline Gerber	Fr.	HS	Vienna, W.Va.	Parkersburg HS
Mariam Kurdadze	Fr.	HS	Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia	64 Secondary School

*based on their classification for the 2008-09 academic year