Clemson Named 2015 ITA All-Academic Team, Six Tigers Honored Individually

CLEMSON, S.C. – The Clemson women’s tennis team, along with six individual Tigers, were honored for their success in the classroom when the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) announced its 2015 academic award winners on Thursday.

The team was named an ITA All-Academic Team after posting a cumulative team grade point average above 3.20 for the 2014-15 academic year. It is the third straight year the Tigers have earned the ITA team recognition. In the spring of 2015, the Tigers recorded an outstanding 3.58 cumulative GPA as a team, the program’s highest semester GPA in 20 years.

Six Tigers, Tristen Dewar, Beatrice Gumulya, Romy Koelzer, Yuilynn Miao, Carola Pederzani and Daniela Ruiz, were honored individually by the association, earning ITA Scholar-Athlete status for recording GPAs above 3.5 for the year. The award was the third career ITA Scholar Athlete honor for Koelzer, and the second for both Dewar and Pederzani. For Gumulya, the academic award capped off a season in which the senior and May 2015 graduate was also named a Doubles All-American.

The Tigers reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2015 before falling to eventual National Champion Vanderbilt. It was the team’s 10^th Sweet 16 appearance in the last 12 seasons. Clemson also finished the year ranked 18^th nationally, its 12^th top-20 national finish in 13 seasons.

ABOUT THE AWARDSThe 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). All eligible student-athletes whose names appear on the NCAA, NAIA or Junior/Community College eligibility form and have competed in one or more varsity matches must average into the GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2014 and spring 2015).

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 through senior year).