LAS CRUCES, N.M. – New Mexico State head women's tennis coach Ivan Fernandez announced the addition of Fanni Novak for the 2016-17 season on Friday.
 
She joins Vanessa Casas and Rebecca Keijzerwaar in Las Cruces this fall as the trio joins a core of six returning players for NM State, including Rimpledeep Kaur – who had a breakout sophomore season.
 
"I am very excited to have Fanni sign with NM State," Fernandez said. "It is not normal that you are able to find a player of that caliber this late in the summer. She is a very solid player and I know that she will have an immediate impact in the line-up."
 
Novak hails from the Hungarian capital of Budapest and has reached as high as the No. 10 in the U18 national rankings according to the Hungarian Tennis Association.
 
She defeated a pair of two-star recruits according to Tennisrecruiting.net at The Tennis Club of Palm Beach L7 Tournament and reached the finals in April of 2015. Novak first downed Brie Botsford, No. 381 according to Tennisrecruiting.net, 6-3, 6-0 in the quarterfinals before taking down Renata Lombera (No. 348) 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (2) in the semifinals. Both Botsford and Renata are now three-star recruits according to the recruiting website.
 
In the National Hungarian Championships, Novak placed third in doubles action and advanced to the quarterfinals in singles play.
 
NM State won its first Western Athletic Conference regular-season title this past season and advanced to the WAC Tournament finals before falling short of defending its tournament title.