Aug. 12, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

IRVING, Texas – Thirty-six Conference USA tennis players received Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) scholar athlete awards as announced by the governing body of collegiate tennis. The East Carolina women’s squad is represented by a league-high seven individuals, while both the Memphis and Rice men’s teams had four individuals honored apiece.

Additionally, both men’s and women’s programs from Memphis and Rice, along with the East Carolina and UCF women and the Tulsa men were honored with team All-Academic Awards. The award for the Rice women marks the 10th straight season that the Owls have earned a team award.

For the league leading Pirates, Jessica Cooke, Sheelah Iyengar, Alexandra Overcash, Hannah Priest, Alexandra Smith, Varinia Soler Braco and Boroke Walter all received individual recognition.

On the men’s side, Memphis’ Benedikt Fischer, Michael Gaerthoeffner, Spencer Heflin and Amrit Narasimhan were named ITA Scholar Athletes for their academic effort during the 2007-08 season. Spencer, Heflin and Narasimhan all received the honor for the second consecutive season and the four honorees were the second most individual honors ever received by the ITA in school history.

Rice’s four men’s honorees were Jonathan Greenberg, Ralph Knupfer, Tobias Scheil and Sung Hoon Shin. Both Greenberg and Shin were repeat honorees. Tulsa had three team members represented on the men’s side, led by three-time C-USA Player of the Year Arnau Brugues. Brugues was joined by teammates Andy Connelly and Ross Cunningham.

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 eligible student-athletes whose names appear on the NCAA/NAIA/NJCAA eligibility form and have competed in one or more varsity matches must average into the GPA for the current academic year.

In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must be a varsity letterwinner, have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year and have been enrolled at their present school for at least two semesters (including freshman through senior year).