Villarreal Earns Student-Athlete of the Year Honors
Southland Conference
FRISCO, Texas – Southeastern Louisiana senior Renee Villarreal has been named the Southland Conference Women's Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year, the conference office announced Thursday in conjunction with the release of the all-academic women's tennis teams.
Villarreal, a native of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, was also named Southland Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Year back in April, and was an all-conference first-team singles and doubles selection. Playing every match at No. 1, Villarreal recorded a 18-3 singles mark in dual matches on the year. She also posted a 10-1 record at No. 1 doubles in league competition while finishing the season at 17-2 overall with teammate Dalina Dahlmans. Villarreal is the first player in school history to be named first-team all-conference all four years. She is ranked fourth on Southeastern’s career singles victories list after a career singles record of 73-9. Villarreal is an finance major and holds a cumulative grade point average of 4.00.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi led the all-academic teams with three total selections including automatic first-team honoree Jelena Dzinic, alongside senior Maider Martin and junior Judit Vives who appear on the second team.
Abilene Christian, McNeese and Northwestern State each had two student-athletes earn all-academic selection while Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin each placed one on the all-academic teams.
Student-athletes who were first-team all-conference selections or named to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District teams last week earned automatic selection onto the all-academic first team.
Senior Kaysie Hermsdorf and sophomore Lucile Pothier of Abilene Christian were both automatic selections, being first-team all-conference. The Wildcats were the only team to claim multiple first-team selections.
McNeese State sophomore Hannah Brett and junior Julia Kral represents the Cowgirls on the all-academic team, as Kral is a two-time selection. Brett made the all-academic first team after claiming first-team all-conference honors.
Northwestern State senior Natalya Krutova claimed a spot on the first team, earning her third all-academic honors. Krutova was also named CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District. Teammate junior Polina Ivanova also earned second-team honors. The two led the Lady Demons to the Southland tournament finals.
Five selections hold perfect 4.0 grade point averages with Southeastern’s Villarreal, McNeese's Kral, NSU's Krutova, Stephen F. Austin junior Valeria Terentyeva and Sam Houston senior Maddie Mortimore. Villarreal, Krutova, Mortimore, and Terentyeva were all CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District selections as well.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member institutions, voted for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year is presented to the one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees shall have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for a least two years at the nominating institution.
The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic/compliance administrators from each Southland Conference university. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for the all-academic squad.
Women's Tennis All-Academic Teams
| First Team |
University |
Cl. |
Hometown |
GPA |
Major |
| Renee Villarreal^*4 |
Southeastern La. |
Sr. |
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico |
4.00 |
Finance |
| Kaysie Hermsdorf*2 |
Abilene Christian |
Sr. |
Spring, Texas |
3.61 |
Nutrition |
| Lucile Pothier* |
Abilene Christian |
So. |
Mouxy, France |
3.27 |
Marketing |
| Hannah Brett* |
McNeese |
So. |
Wokingham, Berkshire, UK |
3.24 |
Health and Human Performance |
| Jelena Dzinic* |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
So. |
Subotica, Serbia |
3.51 |
Business |
| Natalya Krutova*3 |
Northwestern State |
Sr. |
Sevastopol, Ukraine |
4.00 |
Biology |
| Maddie Mortimore* |
Sam Houston State |
Sr. |
Farnham, Surrey, England |
4.00 |
Accounting/International Business |
| Valeria Terentyeva*3 |
Stephen F. Austin |
Sr. |
St. Petersburg, Russia |
4.00 |
Physics |
| Second Team |
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| Maider Martin |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
Sr. |
Hernani, Spain |
3.48 |
Business |
| Julia Kral2 |
McNeese |
Jr. |
Teublitz, Germany |
4.00 |
Business Administration |
| Polina Ivanova |
Northwestern State |
Jr. |
Moscow, Russia |
3.58 |
Business Administration/Accounting |
| Judit Vives |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
Jr. |
Barcelona, Spain |
3.32 |
Psychology |
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^Student-Athlete of the Year
*-Automatic Selection
2-Two-Time All-Academic Selection
3-Three-Time All-Academic Selection
4-Four-Time All-Academic Selection