Virginia Commonwealth University

HONORS

• 2022-23: Atlantic 10 First Team
• 2022-23 Atlantic 10 Performer of the Week Honors: April 18

2022-23: GRADUATE STUDENT

• Transferred from Rice in 2022
• Posted a record of 10-7 as the #1 singles players for the Rams
• Tallied a winning mark of 12-10 in doubles matches 

PRIOR TO VCU:

2020-21 (Junior)
Was 4-5 in singles, including a 3-4 mark at the first line… Posted an 9-7 mark in doubles with Anna Bowtell, 8-6 at the third line.  Fall: Posted a 4-3 mark in doubles in a pair of fall tournaments. 

2019-20 (Sophomore)
Spring: Finished with a 5-5 mark in singles and a 5-0 mark in doubles during the spring...  Fall: Finished the fall  with 5-4 mark in singles and 5-3 in doubles… Defeated #65 Sara Nayar in the opening round of the Flight 1 Singles at the Rice Invitational… Reached the Round of 16 in singles at the ITA Texas Regional and the quarterfinals in doubles with Anna Bowtell before falling to top seeds Tatiana Makarova and Jayci Goldsmith.

2018-18 ( Freshman)
Led the Owls with 17 singles wins (17-5), primarily at the second line (13-3)… Most wins by a Rice freshman since Natalie Beazant was 25-2 in 2012... Won her last seven matches to close the year… Tied for the team lead with four clinch points… Won four of six tiebreak sets as well as both superset tiebreaks during dual action… Was 3-0 at the C-USA Championship in both singles and doubles (with Anna Bowtell) to earn C-USA Outstanding Singles and Doubles of the Championship... Duo provided the clinch for all three doubles points, losing just eight games over three matches… Clinched the opening match vs. Middle Tennessee and the first point vs. FAU and ODU by finishing first in singles and lost only 14 games over three days in singles.  Fall:  Posted a 6-4 mark in singles and 8-2 in doubles in her first collegiate action…  Captured the Flight Four singles title of the Rice Invitational her first collegiate action.  Reached the finals of the ITA Texas Regional doubles with Anna Bowtell before falling to North Texas’ Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze in the final…Finished with an unbeaten mark in three matches in Flight Two of the Rice Invitational and combined with Bowtell to win the Flight Three doubles title at the same event.   

Juniors
Has a career-best WTA ranking of 934… Combined with her sister to the doubles  finals $15,000 ITF event in Wanfercee-Baulet Belgium in 2016 and reached the semis in 2017. Captured the Belgian Winter Cup U16 title… Owns wins over Lenka Wienerova and  Viktoriya Tomova (WTA best ranking of 128 this past summer).

HONORS:

• Best Singles ITA Ranking #96
• All C-USA  Singles (first team) 2019
• All C-USA Doubles (first team) 2020 (second team) 2019
• C-USA Outstanding Singles of the Championship 2019
• C-USA Outstanding Doubles of the Championship 2019
• C-USA All-Freshman 2019
• C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll (2019, 2020, 2021)
• All Academic Team (2019,2020,2021,2022)
• ITA Scholar-Athlete (2019, 2020, 2021,2022)
• Rice Honor Athlete (2021)

Personal:
Birthday is September 30
Born in Moscow, Russia
Parents: Alexey Smirnov and Nataliya Smirnova... Both parents were professional table tennis players… Father was ranked as high as 11th in the world and participated in 3 Olympic Games ( London, Greece and Beijing). He was the top ranked player in Russia for 20 years... Mother played for the Russian junior national table tennis team…
Speaks French, Russian, and English
Twin Sister Anastasia plays for VCU women's tennis
Wants to work in sports industry after college