WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue women's tennis team added to its future with the signing of twostudent-athletes to National Letters of Intent. The Boilermakers will welcome in graduate transfer Elizabeth Norman from NC State and high school senior Antonia Pareja to West Lafayette in the fall of 2022.
"I'm very excited to welcome Liz and Antonia to our Purdue family," head coach Laura Glitz said. "While they both come from different backgrounds, both of them have the potential to make major impacts on our program. Liz is a player who has faced and defeated some of the top players in the nation over the last few years in the ACC at NC State. Her experience will play a big role as she returns to her home state. Antonia has shown consistent improvement during her prep career and that will continue when she transitions to the collegiate level. We cannot wait to get these two on campus."
Pareja signs as a five-star recruit, per the Tennis Recruiting Network, out of Carlsbad, Calif. . She climbed the national rankings from No. 175 as a freshman to No. 41 as a senior in 2021 with a Tennis RPI at 42. She is the No. 11-ranked player in the southwest and No. 10 in California.
TRN gave her career prep record at 32-17 in singles, with three wins against blue-chip recruits. Facing some of the top-ranked players in the nation, Pareja went 6-7 against five stars, 17-1 against four stars and 5-0 against three stars.
A small snapshot of her singles runs include, placing third at the L3 119th USTA Social Sectional in Irvine, Calif., winning the L2 in Surprise, Ariz., singles championship and reaching the podium round in four other events in the last year.
ANTONIA PAREJA ADDITIONAL INFO
• Full Name: Antonia Pareja
• Birthplace: San Diego, Calif.
• Hometown: Carlsbad, Calif.
• Parents: Pablo and Adriana Pareja
• Sisters: Raquel and Julieta
• Raquel plays tennis at UC Irvine
Norman has spent the last three seasons at NC State, following her freshman campaign at James Madison. The Terre Haute, Ind., native has a 74-33 singles record and a 58-42 mark in doubles play in her career.
She climbed as high as No. 98 in the ITA singles rankings and No. 60 in the doubles list during her career. Her sophomore campaign in 2018-19 saw her claim 26 singles and 21 doubles victories during the year. As a freshman at James Madison, Norman set the program dual winning percentage with a 94.7% mark behind an 18-1 record. She claimed the Bedford singles and doubles titles as a rookie and was named the Colonial Athletic Association and ITA Atlantic Region Rookie of the Year.
The Wolfpack climbed as high as No. 2 in the nation and reached the NCAA Tournament Final Four in 2021.
Norman was tabbed as a five-star recruit and No. 3 overall in Georgia, where she won the 6A State Championships in 2016 and 2017. She was named the Atlanta Journal-Constitution High School Athlete of the Year twice, as well as the Marietta Daily Journal Girls Tennis Player of the Year in 2016 and 2017. Norman completed her high school record with a perfect singles record.
Norman will have one year of eligibility remaining when she arrives in West Lafayette next year. As a student, she built a Point-Contact spectrometer as part of her research and would like to work for NASA or SpaceX in the future.
LIZ NORMAN ADDITIONAL INFO
• Full Name: Elizabeth Norman
• Intended Major: PhD in Planetary Science
• Birthplace: Terre Haute, Ind.
• Hometown: Terre Haute, Ind.
• Other Places Lived: Georgia and Florida
• Graduated with a B.S. in physics with minors in math and geology from NC State