SAVANNAH, Ga. - Armstrong Atlantic State University head women's tennis coach Simon Earnshaw has announced the addition of Jennifer Rink to the defending NCAA DII National Champion women's tennis program. Rink will join the Pirates this Fall for the upcoming 2012-13 season.

"Last year we had a young team and only graduated one player, Kathleen Henry, therefore this proved to be a drawn out process to find the right player to fit in with our program's overall philosophy," Earnshaw said. "The thing that stood out for me with Jennifer was her motivation and commitment to improve. I kept coming back to that and feel she has a big upside to her game which will show through with our development process."

Rink follows in a long very successful line of German players for the Pirates. A native of Hildeshiem, Rink has recently been working with Mike Diehl, who also works with Germany's Federation Cup team. She has achieved her highest German women's ranking this spring of 163 and participated in ITF events in Germany, Holland, Poland and Turkey during the past year.

The Armstrong women's tennis team captured its seventh NCAA Division II National Championship in 2012, compiling an undefeated 29-0 mark. The Pirates return six of seven players from last season's squad, including All-American juniors Barbora Krtickova, Aleksandra Filipovski, Olga Kalodzitsa and Marlen Hacke.

The Pirates will open up their Fall schedule at the ITA Southeast Regional tournament in Sumter, S.C., on September 21-24th.