Kearney, Neb. – Nebraska-Kearney head womens tennis coach Scott Shafer announced today that Myrzaiym “Mia” Sherikulova and Jazmin Zamorano have signed on with the Lopers. Both came aboard prior to the current NCAA dead period that started in mid-March. Sherikulova hails from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, with Zamorano a native of Obergon, Mexico. UNK had no seniors on its 10-player 2019-20 roster. Prepping at the Chingiz Aitmatov Tennis Academy Sherikulova won a country-wide tournament (Kyrgyzstan Championship) in the fall by placing first out of 32 players. A year earlier she was the doubles winner in the same event while being the singles runner up. “Im optimistic that Myrzaiym is going to bring a lot of fun and energy to the team. I can see her, once she gets comfortable, being that energetic person that keeps our intensity up. Its often overlooked, but you need to have a few players that bring the energy,” Shafer said. “She also has an outstanding serve and plays closer to the baseline and likes to move into the court to take time away from her opponent.
Myrzaiym will also be the only UNK student from Kyrgyzstan, which I expect her to be a great ambassador of her country and culture.” Currently the second ranked player in Kyrgyzstan Sherikulova is a Fed Cup and Fed Cup Junior player in the Womens Tennis Association (WTA). She was part of the winning team in tournaments held in Sri Lanka and Malaysia while more recently part of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Circuit, racking up wins in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Zamorano has been ranked as high as 13th in Mexico and currently is in the nations top 40. She is two-time singles and doubles champion of the Intercollege Technologico de Monterrey while also winning the singles title at the Sonora Regional in February 2019. More recently she reached the double quarterfinals and the singles round of 16 at the ITF Guadalajara Junior Five regional. Three months earlier at the ITF Tampico Junior Four regional Zamorano advanced to the round of 16 in both singles and doubles. “Having a left-handed player in the line-up like Jazmin helps us out in so many ways. She also brings a game grown on slower clay courts, which hopefully translates to a better understanding of when and how to defend in a point,” Shafer said. “finally, she has experience in ITF events. This means shes been exposed to talents from all over the world, which is exactly what D2 college tennis looks like.”
UNK went 8-2 during the shortened 2019-20 season and was in good shape to challenge for an NCAA Tournament berth. The Lopers will hit the courts again in fall 2020.
