Athletics | July 01, 2016
Starting college can be daunting even if the school you're enrolling in is in the state—or even city—you reside in. It can be doubly stressful if you're moving out of state, which is often accompanied by tuition hikes and leaving behind a support system for a brand-new adventure.
Now try moving across the globe to compete in athletics at the Division I level. Most of us would have a pretty significant learning curve, and it may be a struggle just to get by that first year.
Lidia Yanes Garcia moved from Los Realejos, a city of around 40,000 people in Spain's Canary Islands, to Clarksville with her sister Claudia to pursue Division I tennis and a college degree. If Lidia's first season is any indication, she will leave an indelible mark on the Austin Peay tennis history books.
Stepping into the No. 1 singles role, Yanes Garcia went 13-3, with a 9-1 mark in conference play. Along the way, she won Ohio Valley Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year—the first player in OVC history to turn that particular double play in the same year and just the third in OVC history to take home both honors over the duration of their career.
She became Austin Peay's 10th OVC Player of the Year—first since Vanja Tomic in 2010—and the second Freshman of the Year honoree (Carolin Weikard, 2010). At year's end, she was named Austin Peay's Most Outstanding Female Athlete for the 2015-16 academic year.
In October, Yanes Garcia will compete in the Oracle/ITA Masters Tennis Tournament, just for conference Player of the Year winners—she will compete in singles and mixed doubles with the OVC Men's Player of the Year, Tennessee Tech's Eduardo Mena. The prestigious event runs October 13-16 in Malibu, California at Pepperdine University and Malibu Racquet Club.
2015-16 Top 10
No. 10 - Liermann a dynamo for APSU in her freshman campaign
No. 9 - APSU Track battles injury to remain among the OVC's best
No. 8 - Beach volleyball coming to Clarksville
No. 7 - Quartet of Govs picked in MLB draft
