UDC Men’s & Women’s Tennis Earn ITA All-Academic Team Honors; Eight Individual Firebirds Earn Scholar-Athlete Awards
2015 ITA All-Academic Teams and Scholar-Athletes
SKILLMAN, NJ – Both the men's and women's University of the District of Columbia tennis teams earned the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team honors, and eight individual Firebird student-athletes from both teams earned ITA Scholar-Athlete awards as announced by the ITA late Thursday, July 16th.
Each team, under head coach Dickie Mahaffey, had four individual honorees. From the NCAA Division II East Regional qualifying men's team was: Alexis Baguelin, Ander Murillo, Marco Feligioni and Simon Andersson. From the East Coast Conference semifinalist women's squad was: Alicia Gallard, Laura Rojas, Maxime Duijst and Peerada Looareesuwan.
"At its core, college tennis is about higher education! And, our sport has always been a leader when it comes to high performing scholar-athletes," said Timothy Russell, Chief Executive Officer of the ITA. "This group represents the best of the best, as do their coaches who regularly serve as such great teachers and mentors of our sport's finest young people. Hearty and well-deserved congratulations coupled with loud cheers go out to all of these superstars of intercollegiate athletics."
The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any member program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale). All eligible student-athletes whose names appear on the NCAA, NAIA or Junior/Community College eligibility form and have competed in one or more varsity matches must average into the GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2014 and spring 2015).
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 thorough senior year).
Under Mahaffey, the men's and women's tennis teams have each also earned the ECC Academic Team of Excellence Award in 2013, and there have been a slew of individual men's tennis honors including: Tomas Gajdusek's Excellence in Community and Character Award (conference's highest honor with academics part of the criterion), Miguel Uzcategui's two Capital One CoSIDA 3rd Team Academic All-American honors (2013 & 2014) and ECC Male Scholar Athlete Award (2014), and three ECC Men's Tennis Scholar Athlete Award winners (Uzcategui, 2013; Bruno Reich, 2012; Gajdusek 2011).