PASADENA, Calif. — After earning a No. 16 national ranking and seven ranked wins this past spring, the Caltech women's team will add three accomplished newcomers as the squad takes on its upcoming campaign.

Led by head coach Benay Weintraub, the program will look to take another step up as they take on ITA regional play in the fall before facing regular season competition in 2024. In addition to the aforementioned achievements, last year's team reached as high as fifth in the region and finished the season tied for the conference's third-best record. They lost just one senior to graduation this past June.

Weintraub is excited for the newcomers to get started playing alongside an impressive group of returners.

"We are thrilled to welcome three incredible student-athletes to the Caltech Tennis Family," said Weintraub. "Individually, they each bring special characteristics that will elevate our program on and off the tennis courts. Their academic and life experiences will broaden our team's diversity by only making our team bond stronger. Their playing careers range from coast to coast and across the globe," she said.

"Caltech Tennis is building a championship culture, and it started with our team last year," said the coach. "Now, we are continuing to progress on that solid foundation of teamwork, mental and physical toughness, mental health, spiritual and nutritional wellbeing and finding joy in the heat of competition."

Meet the newest members of Caltech Women's Tennis below:
 

Anna Tanaka

Honolulu, Hawaii / IMG Academdy

An accomplished athlete and scholar, Tanaka will look to make a significant contribution to the team in her first collegiate season. The incoming Beaver comes to Caltech after a dominant youth career, which saw the standout maintain a No. 1 ranking in Hawaii's Girls 18U and 16U categories. Tanaka actively participated in and won various tournaments throughout the United States and overseas, earning her a 4-Star ranking. Before playing at the prestigious IMG Academy, she captained the team at Punahou School where she led the squad to two state championships and a second-place finish at the Point Loma Invitational. Outside of tennis, Tanaka has worked to create AI programs which take X-Ray image inputs to detect elbow fractures and differentiate the three classifications of damage. In 2022, Tanaka was selected to the Asia High School Summit where she presented environmental issues that Hawaii is facing, specifically focusing on ways to combat erosion in Oahu's coastal areas. A National Society of High School Scholar and winner of the Congress of Future Medical Leaders Excellence Award, Tanaka also brings work experience tutoring math and science as well as assisting in translating patents and technical writing. At IMG she served as Vice President of the National Honor Society, Co-Organizer of the school's International Club, News Editor of the IMG student newspaper and member of the Green Team.

"Anna is an extremely talented and competitive tennis player," said Weintraub. "I know she will execute the gritty, competitive spirit our team thrives on. She understands what it takes to continue elevating her own game, and that drive will spread across our entire lineup. I cannot wait to watch her shine and grow throughout her first year at Caltech," she said.
 

Hannah Ramsperger

Zurich, Switzerland / Realgymnasium Raemibuehl Zurich

Rampserger will bring high-level international experience to Pasadena as she embarks on her rookie season at Caltech. In addition to a wide variety of skills in the various elements of the game, the Swiss native brings a host of experience playing matches in Europe across a variety of surfaces. Rampserger also comes to the Institute with an impressive academic resume that includes in-depth research and a host of achievements. In high school she conducted medical engineering research in the field of magnetic capsule endoscopy before publishing her calculations and experiments alongside an analysis of this new technology. Additionally, Rampserger is the Girls Swiss Champion of the Mathematical and Logical Games; she finished fifth in the overall leaderboard. The scholar has also qualified and competed at the International Championship of the Mathematical and Logical Games in Paris, where she placed 21st overall. Rampserger has completed multiple weekly mathematics courses organized by ETH Zurich and has earned several diplomas from mathematics competitions. The newcomer should make an immediate impact to the team on and off the court in her first season as a Beaver.

"Hannah has such an exciting tennis resume, and I am so excited to watch her bring that experience to the Caltech tennis courts," said Weintraub. "She is a very creative and athletic student-athlete -- her ability to adapt and be a critical thinker will be an inspiration to our tennis program. I am really looking forward to her and her game style providing a different perspective on our team."
 

Ritali Jain

San Jose / Evergreen Valley

Jain comes to Caltech after an exceptional athletic and academic career in San Jose. The rookie will bring versatility, smarts and athleticism as she takes on competition in 2023-24. Beyond proving herself as a talented tennis player, Jain has accomplished a long list of academic and STEM achievements. In addition to serving as valedictorian at Evergreen Valley High School, Jain has been named a U.S. Presidential Scholars semifinalist as well as a National Merit Scholar finalist. In 2022, she served as a Research Intern at NASA's Ames Research Center where she used RNASeq and Fluorescence to analyze the response of ERF2 and ERF104 in the Arabidopsis thaliana under Simulated Altered Gravity; she was invited to present her findings at the American Society for Gravitational & Space Research Conference in Houston. She has also interned at Stanford University, working to create multi-platform immersive narratives to illustrate the effects of AI algorithms on human behavior and thought patterns, as well as the University of Southern California, where she studied the changing role of genetic influences of cognitive ability over time. Before that, she interned at San Jose State University exploring computational and theoretical methods of characterize entropy and effects in proteins/RNA. A Gold President's Volunteer Service Award winner, Jain was named an AP Scholar with Distinction and has earned the Top-5% honor in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge. Jain is a two-time semfinalist of the Modeling the Future Challenge and earned the Evergreen Valley Mathematics Award in 2023.

"Ritali is such an energetic, positive and hard-working individual and teammate -- her team-first mentality will make an immediate, positive impact on our tennis program," said Weintraub. "She does not associate herself with her number on the lineup and just competes hard. She is committed to making herself a better person, student and tennis player, and I know that will resonate with our team."
 

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The three student-athletes will join a talented and determined team that again looks to make waves throughout the conference, region and nation.

"I am confident the Class of 2027 will make an immediate, positive impact on our tennis program and in the Caltech community," said Weintraub. "We cannot wait to welcome Anna Tanaka, Hannah Ramsperger and Ritali Jain, and their families, to Pasadena."

Stay tuned to GoCaltech.com for an official 2023-24 schedule release.

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