Christine Chiricosta Named to All-MAC First Team, Shares Sportsmanship Award

Bowling Green State University tennis senior Christine Chiricosta picked up multiple Mid-American Conference awards Thursday night (April 28) at the 2011 MAC Women's Tennis Championship banquet.

MAC RELEASE - Word document
MAC BANQUET PHOTOS - courtesy Jonathan Knight/EMU
VIDEO - ALL-MAC FIRST TEAM
VIDEO - MAC INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Chiricosta, a native of Avon Lake, Ohio (Avon Lake H.S.), was named to the All-MAC First Team for the second year in a row, and also shared the conference's Leann Grimes Davidge Sportsmanship Award.

The All-MAC Team was named, and conference specialty awards were handed out at the banquet, which was held on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.

Chiricosta has earned All-MAC accolades in each of her four seasons at BGSU. As mentioned, she was named to the first team for the second consecutive season, after earning second-team honors as both a freshman and a sophomore.

The BGSU co-captain shared the league's sportsmanship award with Buffalo's Diana Popescu. The Leann Grimes Davidge Sportsmanship Award is presented to the player or players who have displayed outstanding sportsmanship in MAC competition.

Chiricosta, of course, is the winningest player in BGSU tennis history. She enters the MAC Championships with a total of 178 combined career wins, having topped the old record by 25 victories. Chiricosta's balanced totals include 89 singles wins and 89 doubles victories. Both are school records.

This season, Chiricosta has identical records of 25-9 in both singles and doubles. Her 50 overall victories rank second on the team and tie her for fourth on the BGSU single-season list. Chiricosta has played at the number-one singles flight all season long, and has teamed with sophomore Maddy Eccleston at the top doubles flight. Chiricosta has gone 14-7 in dual-match singles play, and finished MAC regular-season action with a mark of 5-3. She has combined with Eccleston for records of 6-2 in the MAC and 16-5 in duals to date, and that duo has won 13 of the last 15 matches.

2011 Tennis All-MAC First Team - Christine Chiricosta

Chiricosta was joined on the All-MAC First Team by the Miami duo of Anastasia Dracheva and Stephanie Danesis, Akron's Zara Harutyunyan, Western Michigan's Nini Sujahvili and UB's Popsecu.

Second-team honors went to UA's Angelika Jogasuria and Prang Pantusart, MU's Megan Martzolf, WMU's Maggie Remynse, Eastern Michigan's Miriam Westerink and Toledo's Ashley Frey.

Miami's Anca Dumitrescu won the Coach-of-the-Year award, after leading the RedHawks to the conference regular-season title with an 8-0 MAC record and a 17-5 overall mark.

Akron's Harutyunyun was named the MAC's Player of the Year for the third consecutive season, while WMU's Sujashvili won the Freshman-of-the-Year award.

The Leann Grimes Davidge Sportsmanship Award, shared by Chiricosta and Popescu, is the result of voting by the MAC women's tennis student-athletes. The other awards all were the result of voting by the conference's nine head coaches.

The Falcons of head coach Penny Dean, the fourth seed for the MAC Championships, will face fifth-seeded UT in Friday's (April 29) quarterfinal round. That match is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Chippewa Club in Ypsilanti.

The complete list of All-MAC Team and specialty-award winners follows.

2011 ALL-MAC FIRST TEAM
Zara Harutyunyan, Akron
Anastasia Dracheva, Miami
Stephanie Danesis, Miami
Christine Chiricosta, Bowling Green
Diana Popescu, Buffalo
Nini Sujashvili, Western Michigan

2011 ALL-MAC SECOND TEAM
Angelika Jogasuria, Akron
Megan Martzolf, Miami
Maggie Remynse, Western Michigan
Prang Pantusart, Akron
Miriam Westerink, Eastern Michigan
Ashley Frey, Toledo

2011 MAC SPECIALTY AWARDS
COACH OF THE YEAR: Anca Dumitrescu, Miami
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Nini Sujashvili, Western Michigan
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Zara Harutyunyan, Akron
LEANN GRIMES DAVIDGE SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD: Christine Chiricosta, BOwling Green and Diana Popescu, Buffalo

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