NEWS

The Newberry College women's tennis team earned the ITA All-Academic Team Award, while nine men and women were named ITA Scholar-Athletes on Friday, as announced by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

The women's team earned the All-Academic Team Award for the fourth consecutive season, with team members Paula Avellan, Tara Lamers, Vanessa Ortiz, Veronika Viegas and Elizabeth Williamson earned Scholar-Athlete honors.

On the men's team, Alex Amble, Fernando España, Patrick Rowe and Jacob Svantesson earned Scholar-Athlete honors.

Lamers is a four-time winner of the Scholar-Athlete Award, while Ortiz earned the honor for the third time. Viegas, Williamson, Amble and España are two-time winners.

Lamers, Williamson and España were also named CoSIDA Academic All-District earlier this year. All of the individuals honored by the ITA are South Atlantic Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll members as well.

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 varsity letter winners should be factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2015 and spring 2016).

In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must meet the following criteria: 1.) be a varsity letter winner, 2.) have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, and 3.) have been enrolled at their present school for at least 2 semesters (including freshman through senior year).