Saluki Women's Tennis Team Earns All-Academic Honors
08/02/2002 | 12:00:00 | Women's Tennis
Aug. 2, 2002
Skillman, N.J. - The Southern Illinois University women's tennis team was named an ITA All-Academic Team for 2002 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The team reeled in a 3.78 grade point average this spring semester to earn the honor. In order to be eligible to receive all-academic honors, a team must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or better.
"These ladies have been consistent," said Judy Auld, SIU women's tennis head coach. "Receiving this award speaks highly of the team and their hard work. They're proud of this accomplishment."
This is the sixth year in a row the SIU women's tennis team has been named by the ITA. The 3.78 GPA is also the highest among all SIU athletic teams.
In addition to the team honor, former SIU tennis standout, Erika Ochoa, was named as an ITA Scholar-Athlete. Ochoa, a senior, placed among the top academic athletes from Division I schools with a spring semester grade point average of 4.00. Ochoa was unanimously named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete team the last two years (2000, 2001).
"This is a nice honor for Erika," said Auld. "This shows the amount of respect she has in the conference. Erika has worked hard and deserves this."
An ITA scholar-athlete must be a junior or senior, a varsity letterwinner and have a GPA of 3.50 or above. This is the second straight year that Ochoa has been named a scholar-athlete.