Tennis Inks Rocio Portela-Berrios to NLI
11/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Seton Hall tennis head coach Greg Wyzykowski has announced that Rocio Portela-Berrios (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) has signed a National Letter of Intent to play with the Pirates beginning in the fall of 2010.
"We are pleased to add a player with Rocio's skills and ITF experience to our program," stated Wyzykowski. "She is a pleasant young lady that will help our program continue to grow stronger."
After reaching number one in her country in the under-14 division, Portella-Berrios moved to Weston, Fla. to train with coach Gustavo Granitto at his academy. While there, she has represented Puerto Rico at the World Junior Tennis Championships and Junior Fed Cup. During her final year in Junior Fed Cup Pre-Qualifying event (16 and under) she played in the number two position and won all of her matches to help the team reach the finals.
Portela-Berrios has also participated in the National Puerto Rican Open, which is a prestigious national tournament where Puerto Rican players, who are in college and on the WTA tour, come back to play in a national championship. In this event, she reached the semifinals three times and the doubles final twice.
Her results against college-level players and WTA players lead to a nomination to participate as part of the Puerto Rican Fed Cup Team during the World Group II competition held in Montreal, Quebec in this past February.
Since moving to Florida, she switched from playing USTA tournaments to playing on the ITF Circuit. In the ITF Junior circuit, Portela-Berrios has reached three doubles finals in prestigious events, as well as three semifinals and more than six quarterfinals. In addition, she is a 4.0 student at Broward Virtual School.
