July 12, 2012

AMHERST, Mass. - Arielle Griffin will join the UMass women's tennis program this fall as announced by head coach Judy Dixon today. Griffin is a highly touted recruit from Jamaica, N.Y. who joins the Minutewomen after a 2012 campaign saw UMass reach the Atlantic 10 Tournament Finals after being the No. 1 seed following the regular season.

Griffin is rated as a four-star recruit according to TennisRecruiting.net and is ranked as the No. 73 recruit nationally. She is a top-20 prospect in the Mid-Atlantic Region and the 7th-ranked recruit in New York.

"Arielle is an athletic player with an all-around and aggressive game style. She has great hands and feel for the ball which allow her to be a strong net player," said Dixon. "She has a lot of experience playing high level USTA tournaments regionally and nationally. We expect her to contribute in both singles and doubles next season."

In 2010, Griffin was named the All-City Girls Tennis Player of the Year after helping Cardozo High to its third straight PSAL Class A championship and winning the Mayor's Cup individual title.

During her prep career, Griffin was 10-8 overall against rated players according to TennisRecruiting.net and 1-2 versus Blue Chip opponents.

The addition of Griffin, UMass' lone National Letter of Intent signee, gives the Minutemen the No. 24 ranked mid-major recruiting class in college tennis. George Washington was the only Atlantic 10 school ranked above UMass as the Colonials were ranked 16th.