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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Tennis Falcons Named an ITA All-Academic Team for 2012-13
September 05, 2013 | Women's Tennis
Seven student-athletes from last year's team earn individual honors
The Bowling Green State University tennis team was well represented as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its academic awards for the 2012-13 academic year. To no one's surprise, BGSU has been named a 2013 ITA All-Academic Team. And, a total of seven Falcons have been named ITA Scholar Athletes.
Complete list of ITA award winners
The list of individual honorees includes Maddy Eccleston, Katie Grubb and Jade Johnson, all of whom were seniors on the 2012-13 team. Additionally, all four BGSU returnees – Katie Brozovich, Nikki Chiricosta, Drew Fillis and #Emily Reuland – earned the individual Scholar Athlete awards for the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean. Chiricosta and Reuland were juniors, while Brozovich and Fillis were freshmen on the '12-13 squad.
The Falcons' total of seven honorees was the highest among Mid-American Conference institutions. Buffalo had five individual players recognized, while Western Michigan had four and Akron, Ball State and Eastern Michigan three apiece. Five MAC schools earned the team honor, with UA, BSU, UB and WMU joining BGSU on that list.
BGSU was named an ITA All-Academic Team for the sixth consecutive year, and the Falcons have had at least three players named an ITA Scholar Athlete in each of those years.
Eccleston earned the ITA Scholar-Athlete honor in all four of her seasons with the Falcon program. Returnees Chiricosta and Reuland have earned accolades in each of their first three seasons at BGSU, while Brozovich and Fillis each are 1-for-1 in their young careers.
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 have competed in one or more varsity matches must average into the GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2012 and spring 2013).
In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must have a grade-point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, have been enrolled at their present school for at least two semesters (including freshman thorough senior year).
For the Falcons, the ITA academic honors come on the heels of arguably the best season in program history. Dean's 2012-13 team had an overall record of 17-5, setting a school record for wins. BGSU tied for second in the MAC's final regular-season standings, and the Falcons earned the number-two seed for the MAC Championships.
Both the regular-season finish and the tourney seed were the highest in BG annals, and the Falcons set another program milestone by advancing to the league tournament's championship match for the first time ever, before dropping that narrow 4-3 decision to MU. Three of BGSU's five losses on the season came by 4-3 scores.
The 2013-14 season begins on Sept. 20, as the Falcons host the BGSU Invitational. The four returning Falcons are joined on the '13-14 roster by freshmen Hannah Drayton, Harley Hutchison and Brittany Plaszewski.
