Southern Lehigh tennis star is headed to LSU

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/ FROM KEITH GROLLER Attended the Southern Lehigh signing ceremony today and one late signee was added to the list. Eric Perez, the recently crowned three-time District 11 singles tennis champion, is headed to LSU on a scholarship. Perez, who is 86-5 in his Southern Lehigh tennis career (singles and doubles), will enroll in January for the spring 2013 semester. He is a four-time district champ having won doubles gold as a freshman and singles titles each of the last three years. His father, Fernando Perez, was a Davis Cup player from Mexico and went on to a storied career at LSU where he was a two-time All-American player and was named to the SEC All-Star Team all four years while he was in Baton Rouge. He won the SEC singles crown twice and was ranked as high as No. 7 in the nation by the International Tennis Collegiate Association, Division I. Eric's mother, the former Beth Tostevin, was also a LSU athlete, competing in women's gymnastics. She was a standout for the Parkettes. So, it's only natural that Eric would want to follow in their footsteps at LSU. "It's awesome because my parents went there and they know the school and it's great tennis and they have great facilities," Perez said. "Eastern Illinois, East Carolina, Rutgers, some schools around here were interested in me, but LSU was always No. 1 because of my parents having gone there." Eric's brother, Nando, and his sister, Michelle, who were also multiple District 11 championship winners, have had stellar careers at Bloomsburg University. Southern Lehigh boys and girls coach Andrea Drabenstott said she had 12 seasons of at least one member of the Perez family on her team