Lamar’s Lapayeva Selected As Student-Athlete of the Year
Southland Conference
FRISCO, Texas – Lamar’s Katya Lapayeva was named the Southland Conference Women’s Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Thursday with the all-academic women’s tennis teams.
The award is Lapayeva’s second superlative this season after garnering Player of the Year in April. The human resources management major posted a 10-1 singles record in conference play at the No. 1 slot while earning a 3.84 GPA. The senior from Mogilev, Belarus, finished the season leading the league in overall singles wins with 19. She also claimed 12 double wins along the way, playing at the top flight across all competitions. Lapayeva was also named to the president’s list, dean’s list and Southland Honor Roll this year.
She is joined on the first team as automatic selections with seven other members: Abilene Christian’s Lucile Pothier and Whitney Williams, Central Arkansas’ QiLi Ma, McNeese’s Hannah Brett, Stephen F. Austin’s Liza Aginskaya and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Marina Vicens Miquel and Jelena Dzinic.
Pothier was the Southland representative at the Oracle/ITA Championship at Pepperdine this year and earned first team doubles at the No. 1 slot along with an honorable mention nod at No. 2 singles on the all-conference teams. The Mouxy, France, product is majoring in marketing and holds a 3.38 GPA. Williams, the other half of the Southland All-Conference First Team No. 1 doubles pair, is a junior kinesiology major with a 3.05 GPA.
Ma earned her All-Conference First Team accolade at No. 2 doubles and was honorable mention at No. 3 singles. She set a Sugar Bears’ single season record for singles wins, going 21-4 overall and a program doubles record in wins for the season with a 21-2 record. She was named a UCA Presidential Scholar for the fall 2016 semester with a 3.7 GPA.
Brett was named an automatic selection after claiming All-Conference First Team at the No. 3 singles position. The health and human performance major holds a 3.44 GPA and was an All-Conference Second Team member at the No. 1 doubles slot.
Aginskaya carries a 4.00 GPA while being a member of the All-Conference First Team at No. 3 doubles. The sophomore finance major went 7-2 in league doubles play.
The Islanders claimed the last two automatic selections with Miquel, a computer science major, sporting a perfect 4.0 GPA and perfect 9-0 record in league play at the No. 6 slot, and Dzinic finishing the Southland singles season at 8-3 with a 3.37 GPA.
New Orleans’ Anja Luethi, SFA’s Denise Maxl and Southeastern Louisiana’s Dany Raygadas all were voted into the second team with 4.0 GPAs. The Cardinals’ Anna Spengler was also selected to the team with a 3.8 GPA.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by a head coach, sports information director and academic/compliance staff member from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competition to qualify for All-Academic selection. Nominees who were also named to the All-Conference First Team or CoSIDA Academic All-District team are automatically named Southland All-Academic.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
2017 Southland Women's Tennis All-Academic Teams
Student-Athlete of the Year: Katya Lapayeva, Lamar
| First Team |
University |
Cl. |
Hometown |
GPA |
Major |
| Katya Lapayeva^* |
Lamar |
Sr. |
Mogilev, Belarus |
3.84 |
Human Resources Management |
| Lucile Pothier*2 |
Abilene Christian |
Jr. |
Mouxy, France |
3.38 |
Marketing |
| Whitney Williams* |
Abilene Christian |
Jr. |
Anchorage, Alaska |
3.05 |
Kinesiology |
| QiLi Ma* |
Central Arkansas |
So. |
Tainan, Thailand |
3.70 |
Undecided |
| Hannah Brett*2 |
McNeese |
Jr. |
Wokingham, Berkshire, UK |
3.44 |
Health and Human Performance |
| Liza Aginskaya* |
Stephen F. Austin |
So. |
Dneprodzerjinsk, Ukraine |
4.00 |
Finance |
| Marina Vicens Miquel* |
A&M-Corpus Christi |
So. |
Port de Pollenca, Spain |
4.00 |
Computer Science |
| Jelena Dzinic*2 |
A&M-Corpus Christi |
Jr. |
Subotica, Serbia |
3.37 |
Marketing |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Second Team |
|
|
|
|
|
| Anja Luethi |
New Orleans |
Sr. |
Bern, Switzerland |
4.00 |
Management (HR and Marketing) |
| Denise Maxl |
Stephen F. Austin |
Sr. |
Vienna, Austria |
4.00 |
Business Economics |
| Anna Spengler |
Lamar |
Sr. |
Essen, Germany |
3.80 |
General Business |
| Dany Raygadas |
Southeastern Louisiana |
Jr. |
Queretaro, Mexico |
4.00 |
Computer Science |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
^Student-Athlete of the Year
*-Automatic Selection
2-Two-Time All-Academic Selection