This year’s All-American Championships will be played from Saturday, Sept. 27, through Sunday, Oct. 5.
“Ash getting into the All-American is something we are very proud of here at NM State,” Aggie head coach Ivan Fernandez said. “We haven’t had an All-American participant on the women’s side I think in close to 10 years.”
Shrivastava, a native of Pune, India, is a junior at NM State and is in her second year on the Aggie tennis team. She did not play her freshman season because she was playing in professional tournaments in India. Before NM State, Shrivastava was the No. 1 junior player in her native country.
“I know this was one of her personal goals she wanted to achieve while in college, and now she has done it,” Fernandez said. “And the fact that she is reaching the goal in her second year of collegiate tennis says a lot about her.”
Last season, during her first year on the tennis squad, Shrivastava went 15-5 overall in singles’ matches, a record that included an 11-match winning streak. She led the Aggies to the WAC Tournament championship match in Las Cruces and was honored on the All-WAC second team at the conclusion of the season.
“Last year she started kind of in the middle of the lineup,” Fernandez said, “but she worked her way up to No. 1 on our team and now she’s pretty much secured her spot at the top of our lineup.”
Shrivastava also exceled off the court, garnering Academic All-WAC and ITA Scholar Athlete honors as a sophomore.
The off-season did not seem to slow down Shrivastava as she picked up right where she left off last season, going undefeated during NM State’s first tournament of the season, the Aggie Invitational, last week. She was named co-champion of the Aggies’ home tournament alongside teammate Susana Alcaraz.
Shrivastava will be playing alongside the best tennis players in the country, including the 30 top-ranked collegiate players. Leading the field will be North Carolina’s Jamie Loeb, the No. 1 women’s tennis player in the nation. Loeb is the defending tournament champion as she won last year’s All-American Championships as a freshman, the first freshman to win the tournament since 2004.
“The fact that Ash is getting this kind of recognition in a tournament with the top-30 players in the nation says a lot about her,” Fernandez said. “We are very proud of her and we look forward to another great year of Aggie tennis with her leading our squad.”