The Yellow Jackets appear to have a young team, as five new players will be joining the roster this year, including the largest freshman class in the program’s history. One of the new faces will be Emily Meyer (Napoleon HS, Ohio), a sophomore transfer from Otterbein College. Emily was the GLL Player of the Year in her junior year at Napoleon HS and GBC Player of the Year her senior year. Joining Meyer and the Yellow Jackets is fellow Napoleon HS alum Amanda Auzins (Napoleon, Ohio), who finished 3rd at the state tournament in her junior year. Auzins then went on to qualify for the state tournament with a different partner last fall. Auzins is joined by former Lima Bath HS players Jessica Gullette (Lima, Ohio), who played #1 singles, and Casie Burkhart (Lima, Ohio), who played #1 doubles. Rounding out the freshman class are Vanessa Vendetta (Winchester, Ohio), a #1 doubles player from Pickerington Central HS, and Erin Wendt (Oak Harbor, Ohio), who played #1 singles at Oak Harbor HS. All of these players will be counted on to contribute in their first season as a Yellow Jacket.

The 2005-06 Yellow Jacket team will be expected to carry on the history of being named to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team. More importantly, the team will look to uphold its distinction as the best academic team in all of NCAA Division III by the ITA. The Yellow Jackets’ team grade point average of 3.71 ranked them above all 360 Division III programs nationally, while the sixth year of All-Academic recognition resulted from maintaining a team GPA of 3.20 or better each year. The team has been named to the ITA All-Academic Team for six consecutive years and has led all Defiance College varsity teams with the highest team GPA for the last four years.