TEMPE, Ariz. – The Anderson University men's and women's tennis teams have each earned The Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Award while a total of 14 student-athletes earned ITA Scholar-Athlete accolades between the two squads, as announced by the ITA on Tuesday.
In all, 720 teams and 3,908 student-athletes across all five divisions of college tennis were honored. Anderson was among the 138 teams and 781 scholar-athletes honored in Division II. On the men's side, Jordan Crookes, Jeffrey Dayton, Grayson Hill, Jerry Price, Juan Carracedo , Preston Morpeth, Hank Sartain and Ramiro Urreta met the criteria for scholar-athlete while Rebecca Bruning, Laura Dean, Elizabeth Beachy, Abigail Gregory, Jennifer Holcombe, and Jacqueline Olivia did so on the women's side.
The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale). All varsity letter winners were factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2016 and spring 2017).
In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must meet the following criteria: 1.) be a varsity letter winner, 2.) have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, and 3.) have been enrolled at their present school for at least 2 semesters (including freshman through senior year).
Both teams also had a representative earn the coveted South Atlantic Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. Seniors Juan Carracedo and Rebecca Bruning not only won the SAC award but were also honored as Anderson's Male and Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
On the court, both men's and women's tennis teams won 18 matches with the 18 win total on the women's side setting a new high for overall wins in program history. Among the men and women, seven total athletes earned post-season athletic conference honors.
The Black and Gold will begin their 2017 fall schedule in late September with both teams eyeing a SAC Title and the NCAA's.
