CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College men's and women's tennis teams were both named All-Academic teams by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Monday afternoon. Additionally, five men's players and seven women's players were named Scholar-Athletes by the organization.
The men's team takes its fifth straight All-Academic team honor, having made the list every year since 2012, including 2016 under first-year head coach Patrick Fediuk. The women's team earns its third straight All-Academic team honor, coming under head coach Catherine Dunagan, and its fifth in the Division I era overall.
The women's squad set a program record with seven players named Scholar-Athletes, while receiving at least one honoree for the eighth straight season. Nicole Croxton, Caroline Ferrari, Demi Henschel, Tracy Johnson, Brittany Nuttall, Celine Schepers and Kayla Stanford made up the list for PC, each one receiving the award for the first time.
Will Baird, Danny Bruce, Ben Kelley, Diego Manzanas and Joel Roberts were the five men's tennis players to be named ITA Scholar-Athletes, marking the fifth straight season that PC had at least five players honored. It was the seventh straight season that PC had a player named a Scholar-Athlete and the eighth time in the last nine seasons.
Bruce finishes his career with his fourth ITA Scholar-Athlete honor, making the list each year of his career to become just the second player in PC's Division I history to receive the award four times. Manzanas receives the honor for the third straight year, while Baird, Kelly and Roberts each took home the honor for the second time in their respective careers.
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 letterwinners should be factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2015 and spring 2016).
In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must meet the following criteria: 1.) be a varsity letterwinner, 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).
