SKILLMAN, N.J. - The Simmons College Women's Tennis team received the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team award, while eight Sharks were honored as Scholar-Athletes, it was announced by the ITA.
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).
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).
"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."
Simmons Tennis compiled a 3.56 cumulative GPA as a team for 2014-15 and has earned the All-Academic Team award in six of the last eight years, including three straight years. The Sharks were one of just 18 NCAA Division III squads to have at least eight student-athletes earn the Scholar-Athlete award.
Junior Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) is selected for the third straight year, while classmates Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.), Katie Crowley (Reading, Mass.) and Caroline Khoury (Portsmouth, Ohio) as well as sophomore Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) all were named as Scholar-Athletes for the second time. First years Han DK Le (Tra Vinh, Vietnam (Matignon H.S.)), Mary Matthews (Wakefield, R.I.) and Winnie Yee (South San Francisco, Calif.) rounded out the eight honorees for the Sharks.
As the governing body of collegiate tennis, the ITA promotes both the athletic and academic achievements of varsity collegiate tennis players. The ITA, which is comprised of nearly 1,700 men's and women's varsity coaches and 20,000 student-athletes from over 1,200 institutions, has a comprehensive awards program for players and coaches to honor excellence in academics, leadership, sportsmanship and athletic performance. The ITA annually recognizes over 3,000 student-athletes on an individual and team basis from over 500 different varsity tennis programs. For more information on the ITA Awards program, please visit http://www.itatennis.com/AboutITA/AbouttheITA.htm.