Women's Tennis | December 3

DeKALB, Ill. – Rebeca Garcia Miralles (Calle Alicante, Spain/SOS Baynat), who is the No. 70 ranked player in Spain, and Sophia Shlyakhta (Vernon Hills, Ill./Stevenson HS), a three-star recruit with multiple All-State honors, have signed with the Northern Illinois University women's tennis program, NIU head coach Eric Burns announced Tuesday.
 
"We are really excited to add both Rebeca and Sophia to our team for Fall 2025," said Burns. "Both have lots of experience and great tennis backgrounds that should help them in their preparation for college tennis. We are looking forward to working with them to see where we can go with their games."
 
Garcia Miralles has extensive experience as a junior player in Spain where she is ranked 70th in the country with a provincial (state) ranking of No. 4 and is ranked No. 22 in the region. She has a Universal Tennis Rating (tennis' global rating system) of 8.47 with a rating as high as 8.64. Garcia Miralles won the Castellon and Canary Islands Brand and the Masters Champion Bowl tournaments in 2024 and was a Valencian community semifinalist in 2023.
 
"Rebeca is someone we started recruiting early and have been talking with for a while," Burns said. "While she hasn't played a lot of ITF events, she has had a lot of good results in the tournaments in Spain and is in the top 100 which is a big accomplishment. We're excited about what she can bring to the team and expect she will be a great addition."
 
One of the top high school doubles players in Illinois and a three-star recruit on tennisrecruiting.net, Shlyakhta earned second team All-State honors in doubles from the Illinois High School Coaches Association in 2024 after advancing to the finals in Class 2A, winning the Sectional title and finishing as runner- up I the North Suburban Conference tournament. She was a member of the IHSA All-State doubles team.
 
Shlyakhta also was on the 2023 IHSCA All-State team in doubles, won the North Suburban Conference title and was a runner-up in doubles at Sectionals. She and her partner played in the seventh-place match in Class 2A in 2023.
 
"Unlike Rebeca, we started very late talking with Sophia. She showed a lot of initiative in reaching out to us and I'm really glad she targeted NIU as a school she was interested in," Burns said. "With Sophia we are getting a great player from Illinois who has had a lot of success in high school doubles and was runner-up in Illinois at the State Championship this fall. With more matches and experience I feel she can be an excellent college player, and I believe her winning experience in doubles can really help our team."
 
Both Garcia Miralles and Shlyakhta intend to major in business at NIU.
 
The Huskies open their 2025 dual match season on Friday, January 17 versus Lindenwood in O'Fallon, Illinois with the first home dual set for Saturday, January 25th with matches against Northern Iowa and Eastern Illinois. NIU posted a 16-10 record a year ago, including a 10-3 mark in the Nelson Tennis Center.
 
-- NIU --
 
Twitter: @NIUAthletics
Facebook: NIU Huskies
Instagram: niuhuskies
YouTube: NIU Athletics