STATESBORO - Georgia Southern Head Women's Tennis Coach Sean McCaffrey announced the signing of Ana Tsitavets to join the Eagle program for the upcoming 2022-23 campaign.

Tsitavets hails from Minsk, Belarus, where she excelled as a youth in her home country, achieving a No. 1 juniors ranking from 2016-22. She attended Gymnasium #56 in Minsk and played for coach Vladimir Perko. Tsitavets won singles and doubles team events in Minsk and in Liepaja, Latvia, while also capturing an ITF doubles bracket in Chornomorsk, Ukraine. She also earned All-County Tennis Festival honors four straight year from 2018-22. At Georgia Southern, Tsitavets is planning to major in criminal justice and criminology.

"I chose Georgia Southern University for many factors," Tsitavets said. "The first, and the most important factor, is the team. I was really impressed by the team and its extremely positive culture as a whole program-wide. I feel that this is exactly what I needed; a plan. I know that it will help me also in my personal development as an athlete. The second factor is the atmosphere at the University. It's also very important for me to have a great relationship with my teammates and my coach. So Coach McCaffrey and my teammates, made a big impact on me. The entire team is very supportive and super caring, and it makes me feel like I'm home when we are with each other. Also, Georgia Southern has a major which I want to study, a great location geographically, and a lot of opportunities for my future. So I found everything at Georgia Southern University. I am very excited to meet everyone and join the team. Go Eagles!"

"We are very excited to welcome Ana to the Eagle tennis family," Coach McCaffrey said. "She certainly has the tennis abilities to compete in a very strong Sun Belt Conference, but she also embodies a high level of character and inner drive. I'm impressed with her dedication towards her academics, as well as her desire to join a program where everyone works together in order to achieve both team and individual goals. I think Ana will contribute greatly to the program and I look forward to watching her grow as a student-athlete and as a member of the Georgia Southern community."

Tsitavets joins Penn State graduate transfer Olivia Ryan, Japanese freshman Nanaka Kijima and French freshman Ninon Martinache to the Eagles' signing class for 2022-23.