Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT – Lamar women’s tennis has been named a 2018 Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic team.

The Cardinals had a strong showing with seven members of the squad receiving 2018 Scholar-Athlete honors.

LU’s seven-member class of scholar-athletes consists freshmen Milena Belianovich, Kaela Di Giulio, Natalia Garcia Molina, Dominique Leh and Amelie Vossgaetter, sophomore Sanja Jolic and junior Priscilla Garza.

The ITA’s All-Academic teams and scholar athletes include 735 teams across junior college, NAIA and all three NCAA divisions, and consisted of more than 4,300 total athletes. All varsity letterwinners are factored into the GPA for the current academic year.

The ITA All-Academic team awards are open to any ITA program that has a cumulative team grade-point average of 3.2 or better.

In order for athletes to earn scholar-athlete recognition a player must be a letterwinner, have a minimum 3.5 GPA for the current year and have been enrolled at their current school for two semesters.

LU head coach David Wong entered the 2018 campaign with one of the youngest teams in nation, and one of the youngest in program history. Of the 10-member squad, seven players were in their first year with the Cardinals and six of those were freshmen. The Cardinals played the whole 2018 season with only one senior – Stephanie Marchena – and her playing time was diminished due to injuries.

Despite the team’s overall youth, the Cardinals managed to record Southland Conference victories over Stephen F. Austin, Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana during the 2018 season.