Mutel Completes Women’s Tennis Player, Student-Athlete of the Year Sweep
Southland Conference
FRISCO, Texas – Northwestern State’s Polina Mutel is the 2018 Women’s Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Tuesday with its all-academic teams. All yearly awards are presented by
Ready Nutrition.
The 2018 Southland Player of the Year excelled this season beyond the court. The junior from Yaroslavl, Russia, has a 3.76 GPA as a business administration major. She held onto this average following a year that saw her land the top athletic accolade with a 10-1 season at the top flight in singles. She also went 10-0 in doubles play at the No. 1 line to earn first team all-conference honors for singles and doubles.
Northwestern State, Central Arkansas, McNeese and Southeastern Louisiana each secured two automatic selections on the first team with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi picking up the last spot.
Mutel and doubles partner Polina Ivanova each were automatically selected to the top team after being named to the all-conference first team. QiLi Ma and Amiru Shimoguchi represent UCA on the top team, Phonexay Chitdara and Sarah Jurakova are first-team selections for the Cowgirls, and Dalina Dahlmans and Dani Raygadas are on the team for the Lions. Raygadas is the only automatic selection for earning a spot on the CoSIDA Google Cloud All-District Team.
Marina Vicens Miquel is the lone Islander on the all-academic teams.
Hannah Brett of McNeese earned her third all-academic selection, a 4.00 GPA holder in sports and wellness management. Sam Houston State’s Fabienne Gettwart was voted to the second team with a 3.73 GPA in marketing and economics.
Marli Van Heerden tallied a second-team selection for UCA with a 3.84 GPA in accounting, and NSU’s Judit Castillo registered the final spot on the teams with a 3.94 GPA in health and exercise science.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by a head coach, sports information director and academic/compliance staff member from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competition to qualify for All-Academic selection. Nominees who were also named to the All-Conference First Team or CoSIDA Academic All-District team are automatically named Southland All-Academic.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
2018 Southland Women's Tennis All-Academic Teams
Student-Athlete of the Year: Polina Mutel, Northwestern State
First Team
| Name |
Class |
School |
Hometown |
Major |
GPA |
| Polina Mutel^* |
Jr. |
Northwestern State |
Yaroslavl, Russia |
Business Administration |
3.76 |
| QiLi Ma*2 |
Jr. |
Central Arkansas |
Tainan, Taiwan |
Psychology |
3.73 |
| Amiru Shimoguchi* |
Sr. |
Central Arkansas |
Yokahoma-shi, Japan |
|
|
| Phonexay Chitdara* |
So. |
McNeese |
Belgium |
Business Administration |
3.47 |
| Sarah Jurakova* |
Sr. |
McNeese |
Trnava, Slovakia |
Sports and Wellness Management |
3.57 |
| Polina Ivanova* |
Sr. |
Northwestern State |
Moscow, Russia |
Business Administration; Accounting |
3.67 |
| Dalina Dahlmans* |
Sr. |
Southeastern La. |
Selfkant Hillensberg, Germany |
Psychology |
3.78 |
| Marina Vicens Miquel*2 |
Jr. |
A&M-Corpus Christi |
Port de Pollenca, Mallorca, Spain |
Computer Science |
3.92 |
| Dany Raygadas* |
Sr. |
Southeastern La. |
Queretaro, Mexico |
Computer Science |
4.00 |
Second Team
| Name |
Class |
School |
Hometown |
Major |
GPA |
| Hannah Brett3 |
Sr. |
McNeese |
Wokingham, Berkshire |
Sports and Wellness Management |
4.00 |
| Fabienne Gettwart |
Sr. |
Sam Houston State |
Dreiech, Hessen, Germany |
Marketing/Economics |
3.73 |
| Marli Van Heerden |
Jr. |
Central Arkansas |
George, South Africa |
Accounting |
3.84 |
| Judit Castillo |
So. |
Northwestern State |
Teruel, Spain |
Health and Exercise Science |
3.94 |
^Student-Athlete of the Year
*-Automatic Selection
2-Two-Time All-Academic Selection
3-Three-Time All-Academic Selection