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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Tennis Falcons Named an ITA All-Academic Team for 2011-12
July 20, 2012 | Women's Tennis
Four Falcons earn individual honors from ITA
The Bowling Green State University tennis team was well represented as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its academic awards for the 2011-12 academic year. To no one's surprise, BGSU has been named a 2012 ITA All-Academic Team, and a total of four Falcons have been named ITA Scholar Athletes.
Nikki Chiricosta, Jessica Easdale, Maddy Eccleston and Emily Reuland all earned the individual Scholar Athlete awards for the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean. Easdale was a senior, Eccleston a junior and Chiricosta and Reuland were sophomores on the '11-12 squad.
The Falcons' total of four honorees tied for the second most among Mid-American Conference institutions. Western Michigan University had five honorees, while Ball State University, like BGSU, had four student-athletes recognized. No other league institution had more than two players honored.
BGSU was named an ITA All-Academic Team for the fifth consecutive year, and the Falcons have had at least three players named an ITA Scholar Athlete in each of those years.
All four of the aforementioned Falcons have been named an ITA Scholar Athlete in every year of their respective collegiate careers. Easdale earns the honor for the fourth time, Eccleston for the third-straight year and Chiricosta and Reuland for the second time each.
The ITA, the governing body of collegiate tennis, bestows its academic awards on deserving teams and student-athletes for men and women at all collegiate levels - NCAA Divisions I, II, III, NAIA and junior colleges. 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/CA JUCO eligibility form and competed in one or more varsity matches must average into the GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2011 and spring 2012).
In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status, a player must meet the following criteria
- 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 2 semesters (including freshman through senior year).
The ITA honors are just the latest academic accolades for the Falcons. BGSU led the conference with three Academic All-MAC selections in late May, as Chiricosta, Eccleston and Reuland all were named to the team. The remaining four players on the roster -- Easdale, Katie Grubb, Mary Hill and Jade Johnson -- all earned academic all-conference honorable mention.
Additionally, the Falcons earned an NCAA Public Recognition Award, given to teams scoring in the top 10 percent in each sport with their Academic Progress Rates, for the seventh consecutive season. The team has earned that award in every year since its inception. In fact, BGSU has had a perfect score of 1,000 in every year of the APR's existence.
All seven student-athletes on the 2011-12 roster finished the academic year with a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.38, with three of the seven maintaining a GPA of 3.90 or higher.
Chiricosta, a native of Avon Lake, Ohio (Avon Lake HS), was named to the All-MAC First Team in 2011-12. She finished the season with an overall record of 45-20, having gone 23-9 in singles play and 22-11 in doubles action, and she ranked second on the team in wins in all three categories. Chiricosta played four singles matches at the top flight and four at the number-two level in MAC regular-season action, and had a 6-2 record. Additionally, she teamed with Reuland for a 6-2 conference mark in doubles, playing at the number-one flight in all eight league matches.
Chiricosta was named the MAC Player of the Week on three occasions in '11-12. Her total of 45 wins on the year ties her for 11th on the BGSU single-season list. After just two years at BG, she already ranks 25th in school history with 98 career wins. Chiricosta picked up her 50th career singles win in the Falcons' victory at Toledo on April 21, and now ranks 21st on that BGSU list with a total of 51 singles victories. She won nearly 70 percent of her matches on the season (.692) and almost 72 percent of her career collegiate contests (.715).
In the classroom, Chiricosta is a communication major, and maintains an 3.95 cumulative GPA through the Spring 2012 semester.
Easdale, a native of Dublin, Ohio (Dublin Jerome H.S.), posted a career total of 67 victories, despite missing nearly all of her first season at BGSU due to injury. She had a 29-17 overall record as a sophomore, and played at each of the lower three singles flights during the dual-match season. Easdale played at the fourth flight for nearly all of BG's MAC regular-season matches, and went 3-1 in doubles play in conference contests.
A two-year co-captain for the Falcons, Easdale went 21-18 overall as a junior, and played at the sixth singles flight down the stretch. She won two of her last three regular-season matches, and was only two games away from a victory in the league tournament semifinal match vs. Miami, when that match was abandoned. In her senior season, Easdale went 17-14 on the year, including a 13-13 mark in singles play. She finished her BGSU career tied for 28th on the school list for singles wins.
A neuroscience major at BGSU, Easdale graduated with a cumulative GPA of 3.69.
Eccleston, a native of Toledo, Ohio (St. Ursula Acad.), was the MAC's recipient of the Leann Grimes Davidge Sportsmanship Award. That award is presented to the player who displayed outstanding sportsmanship in MAC competition, and is the result of voting by the MAC women's tennis student-athletes. She had a singles record of 19-13 on the season along with a doubles mark of 22-10, for an overall mark of 41-23. Eccleston split time with Chiricosta at the top-two singles flights, and primarily played at the second doubles flight.
Eccleston, the winningest active Falcon, has had at least 40 total victories in each of her three seasons at BGSU and is moving up the BGSU career charts. With a year remaining in her BGSU career, she is tied for 14th in school history with 127 overall wins. Eccleston is 18th in career singles wins, with 58, and is 11th with 69 doubles victories. She has a career winning percentage of .655.
Eccleston, a health science major, finished her junior year with a cumulative GPA of 3.95.
Reuland, who hails from Oswego, Ill. (Rosary H.S.), was named to the All-MAC Second Team in 2011-12. She led the Falcons in all three wins categories, and won almost 75 percent of her matches. Her 49-17 record included a 25-8 singles record and a doubles mark of 24-9. Reuland played at the third singles flight for nearly the entire season, moving up to the second flight and posting a 2-0 record in back-to-back matches in early April. She had a 6-2 singles record in MAC regular-season play, and teamed with Chiricosta to win six of eight MAC contests at the top flight.
Reuland's total of 49 overall wins this year marks the seventh-highest seasonal total in school history. She tied for fifth with 25 singles wins, and deadlocked for eighth on the doubles wins list, with 24 this season. In just two seasons in the Brown and Orange, Reuland has 89 total victories, the 28th-best total in BG annals. She is tied for 23rd all-time with 48 career singles wins.
Reuland, an exercise science major, has a 3.90 cumulative GPA through the spring semester.
On the court, the 2011-12 Falcons finished with an overall record of 10-10. BGSU went 4-4 in MAC regular-season play, earning the fifth seed for the MAC Championships, and the Falcons advanced to the semifinals of the league tournament for the second consecutive spring.
Six of the seven Falcons on the '11-12 roster return for 2012-13 for Dean and assistant coach Cindy Yonker. They will be joined by a pair of talented freshmen in Katie Brozovich and Drew Fillis.
