(Courtesy of CACC)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (October 23, 2014) -- The Georgian Court University women's tennis squad are the recipients of the 2014 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Team Sportsmanship Award, which was announced by Thursday by CACC Commissioner Dan Mara.
Under the guidance of first-year head coach Ashleigh Johnson Parker in 2014, the Lions demonstrated outstanding class and character to help grow and promote the sports of women's intercollegiate tennis.
Concordia College senior standout Romana Tabak (Bratislava, Slovakia) highlighted a list of impressive student-athlete award winners, as she was named the 2014 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Women's Tennis Player of the Year.
Joining Tabak as a major year-end award winner was Goldey-Beacom College's Amina Mrad (Berlin, Germany), who was named the 2014 CACC Rookie of the Year, and her leader, Joe Kissel, who was named the 2014 BSN Sports Coach of the Year.
Tabak also earned a spot on the All-CACC First-Team, and was joined on the conference's top squad by Philadelphia University's Julia Arruda (Valinhos, Brazil), Chestnut Hill College's Charlotte Dawson (Odessa, Texas), Holy Family University's Anastasiya Kolodiy (Lviv, Ukraine), Concordia's Costanza Mecchi (Rome, Italy), and Goldey-Beacom's Maria Victoria (Totana, Spain).
Mrad garnered a spot on the All-CACC Second-Team in addition to her rookie award. Five other student-athletes joined Mrad on the second-team, including Concordia's Linda Eliasson (Gothenburg, Sweden) and Alla Kravchuk (Tashkent, Uzbekistan), Goldey-Beacom's Laura Moreno (Murcia, Spain) and Stephanie Puentes Robinson (Bogota, Colombia), and Chestnut Hill's Iman Williams-Mulesa (Pickering, Ontario).
Tabak had a sensational 2014 regular season in helping to guide the Clippers to the CACC regular season championship and the top seed in this weekend's conference semifinals and finals, which will be hosted on the Chestnut Hill campus. She put together a fantastic showing at the ITA East Regionals in late September, as she teammed with Mecchi to claim the Doubles "A" Draw championship in the event loaded with some of the top players in the region. If that wasn't enough, Tabak then edged out her teammate in the championship match of the Singles "A" Draw to take home her second trophy of the competition. Tabak, who was 8-0 in dual matches, capped her regular season with a critical singles win on Saturday as she picked up a 6-3, 6-3 victory over one of the conference's other outstanding competitors in Dawson of Chestnut Hill.
Mrad had a strong collegiate debut in 2014, as she compiled an 8-1 singles record, including winning her last four matches. She was 6-0 in CACC singles matches, while also posting a quality doubles record during the campaign with an 8-3 mark. Her efforts helped Goldey-Beacom post a 7-1 CACC record and a 10-1 overall mark, which was good enough for second place in the regular season standings and a first-round bye during this week's ongoing conference championship.
Mrad, along with her other teammates who earned all-conference honors this year, benefitted from the guidance of Coach Kissel, who picked up the league's top coaching award. The Lightning dropped their only conference match of the season to regular season champion Concordia, but opened the year with six-straight triumphs, and capped it with four-straight 9-0 victories.
In addition to the accolades listed above by the major award winners, the remaining student-athletes who were honored with all-conference accolades also posted their own impressive accomplishments.
Mecchi, who was named to the All-CACC First-Team for the second-consecutive season, opened her campaign with an impressive individual singles title at the Bucknell Invitational in early September by knocking off a pair of Division I opponents to take home the trophy. She was 7-0 in singles play in the fall.
Dawson, who also earned a spot on the All-CACC First-Team for the second time in as many seasons, put together a fine 2014 regular season. Competing at the No. 1 singles spot the entire fall, Dawson posted a strong 8-2 record, while faring quite nicely as well in doubles action as she went 8-3 with multiple playing partners (once again competing in the No. 1 spot).
Kolodiy was also placed on the first-team for the second-straight year after she posted a combined 16-14 record in singles and doubles competition at the No. 1 spot, including a 10-5 mark in doubles play.
Arruda's outstanding play landed her on the first-team, as she went 11-4 competing at the No. 1 singles spot all fall. She also went 8-7 in doubles action, competing primarily at the No. 1 spot as well.
Victoria was tabbed to the first-team after going 11-2 in singles competition during the regular season, including a perfect 3-0 mark competing at the No. 1 singles post. In doubles action, she teamed up with several teammates to post a combined 8-1 mark.
Eliasson earned second-team honors, marking the second year in a row she picked up all-conference accolades. She garnered a spot this year after going 5-0 in both singles and doubles play.
Kravchuk was also placed on the second team after going 5-3 in singles and 6-2 in doubles during the fall. It marked the second time in the last three years she was named to All-CACC Second-Team, as she picked up her first honor in 2012.
Moreno landed on the second-team following an impressive fall season which saw her go 7-3 in singles, including a 4-3 mark at the No. 1 spot. She also went 7-3 in doubles action.
By landing on the second-team, Puentes Robinson assured herself that she received all-conference recognition each of her four years of collegiate competition. Her 11-1 singles record also saw her go 10-0 in dual-match competition.
Williams-Mulesa racked up all-conference honors for the second year in a row with her second-team recognition. She earned the distinction as she has posted a 7-3 singles record this year at the No. 2 spot for the Griffins. Williams-Mulesa is also 9-2 in doubles play.
The award winners will be recognized and given their awards at the 2014 CACC Women's Tennis Championship Banquet on Friday night on the Chestnut Hill campus. The event will kick off championship weekend in the sport, as the conference semifinals will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., followed by the championship match on Sunday at 12 p.m. Concordia, the top overall seed will host fourth-seeded Philadelphia U. in the first semifinal on Saturday, followed by second-seeded Goldey-Beacom facing third-seeded Chestnut Hill.
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference composed of 14 institutions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The member institutions are Bloomfield College, Caldwell University, Chestnut Hill College, Concordia (N.Y.) College, Dominican (N.Y.) College, Felician College, Georgian Court University, Goldey-Beacom College, Holy Family University, Nyack College, Philadelphia University, Post University of Waterbury, University of the Sciences, and Wilmington University.
