June 5, 2003

Head Women's Tennis Coach Jeff Bloomberg announced that Julia Lebedev has signed a Letter of Intent to attend Siena College this fall. Lebedev who has been ranked as high as 163 nationally by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) chose Siena because of its business program, size, student-teacher ratio and the friendly atmosphere on campus.

A native of Moscow, Russia, Lebedev, will graduate from West Hempstead High School at the end of this month where she has been a starter on the school's tennis team since seventh grade. Lebedev has served as the top singles player at West Hempstead since eighth grade. She has been selected All Conference, All Division and All County during her scholastic career. This past fall she represented Long Island at the New York State High School Tennis Championships in singles and reached the round of 16.

Last summer, Julia participated in the Empire State Games where she went undefeated, winning the Gold Medal in singles competition. Her singles performance was instrumental in leading her Long Island team to the Team Gold Medal.

A resident of Island Park, N.Y. Julia began playing tennis at teh age of eight when a camp counselor noticed her natural talent on the court. Since then she has been training at the USTA National Tennis Center, in Queens, N.Y., the home of the U.S. Open.

"Julia's decision to attend Siena has come at a critical time in our program," Bloomberg said. "We'll be looking to her to help fill the void left by the graduation of Nikki Mayer. She's the kind of player who can make a difference--smart, determined and a very hard worker. I expect her to be fighting for a top position this fall."