McNeese State’s Gawlik Named Women’s Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year

5/22/2014 4:12:31 PM

Southland Conference

FRISCO, Texas – McNeese State sophomore Klaudia Gawlik has been named the Southland Conference Women’s Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year, the conference announced Thursday in conjunction with the release of the all-academic women’s tennis teams.

Gawlik, the 2014 Southland Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, was a first-team all-conference selection after compiling a 12-0 singles record. The sophomore from Nowy Sacz, Poland maintains a 3.77 grade-point average in civil engineering while boasting an 18-2 overall singles record and a 13-6 record in doubles competition. A two-time player of the week, she closed the regular season with a 15-match win streak and led McNeese to its best finish in nearly a decade. The Cowgirls finished 16-7 overall and 10-2 in Southland matches to earn the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament. Gawlik, a member of the President’s Honor List last fall, is the fifth student-athlete to earn back-to-back player of the year awards.

McNeese had two student-athletes named to the all-academic teams. Gawlik was a first-team selection while sophomore Annabelle Peacock collected second-team honors. New Orleans, Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin also placed two student-athletes on the all-academic teams, while Abilene Christian, UIW, Nicholls, and Southeastern Louisiana each placed one.

Gawlik was one of five automatic selections on the all-academic teams. Automatic selections include those student-athletes who received first-team all-conference honors or those named to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District Teams. This year, the first-team all-academic squad was filled by five automatic selections, leaving one open spot open on the first team and all six positions available on the second team.

Other automatic selections include Abilene Christian senior Micah Hermsdorf, Northwestern State sophomore Natalya Krutova, Northwestern State junior Tatiana Larina and Southeastern Louisiana sophomore Renee Villarreal. All five automatic selections were first-team all-conference picks, while both Krutova and Villarreal also earned academic designation on the CoSIDA all-district teams.

New Orleans sophomore Soledad Calderon Arroyo joined the automatic selections on the first team. The second-team consists of Nicholls sophomore Isla Brock, Peacock, New Orleans junior Marta Sans, Stephen F. Austin sophomore Valeria Terentyeva, UIW senior Andi Botha and Stephen F. Austin junior Malena Gordo.

This is the second time for Larina and Gordo to earn all-academic honors. Among the 12 student-athletes selected for academic recognition, nine have a GPA of 3.8 or higher, including Krutova and Villarreal who boast perfect 4.0 GPAs.

The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 14 member universities, voted for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year is presented to the one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees shall have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for a least two years at the nominating institution.

The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic/compliance administrators from each Southland Conference university. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competition to qualify for the all-academic squad.

Women’s Tennis All-Academic Teams

First Team	University	Cl.	Hometown	GPA	Major
Klaudia Gawlik¹^	McNeese State	So.	Nowy Sacz, Poland	3.77	Civil Engineering
Micah Hermsdorf¹	Abilene Christian	Sr.	Spring, Texas	3.97	Advertising & Public Relations
Natalya Krutova¹	Northwestern State	So.	Sevastopal, Ukraine	4.00	Biology
Tatiana Larina¹²	Northwestern State	Jr.	Taganrog, Russia	3.90	Family/Consumer Sciences
Renee Villarreal¹	Southeastern La.	So.	Monterrey, Mexico	4.00	Finance
Soledad Calderon Arroyo	New Orleans	So.	Seville, Spain	3.93	Electrical Engineering

Second Team
Isla Brock	Nicholls	So.	Neubeuern, Germany	3.82	Dietetics
Annabelle Peacock	McNeese State	So.	Bristol, England	3.94	Health & Human Performance
Marta Sans	New Orleans	Jr.	Barcelona, Spain	3.88	Chemistry
Valeria Terentyeva	Stephen F. Austin	So.	St. Petersburg, Russia	3.69	Physics
Andi Botha	UIW	Sr.	Pretoria, South Africa	3.83	Business Administration
Malena Gordo²	Stephen F. Austin	Jr.	Buenos Aires, Argentina	3.31	Theatre

^Student-Athlete of the Year
1-Automatic Selection
2-Two-Time All-Academic Selection