Yamalapalli Completes Women’s Tennis Player, Student-Athlete of the Year Sweep
FRISCO, Texas – Sam Houston State’s Sahaja Yamalapalli is the 2019 Women’s Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Monday with its all-academic teams. All yearly awards are presented by
Ready Nutrition.
The 2019 Southland Conference Player of the Year backed up her on-court success off the court with a perfect 4.00 GPA in food science and nutrition. The President’s List member garnered the top athletic accolade and first-team all-conference honors with a 10-1 record at No. 1 singles in league play.
Her Bearkat teammate Lusine Chobanyan was also an automatic selection on the first team, along with fellow first-team all-conference honorees Emilija Dancetovic and Judit Castillo Gargallo of Northwestern State. Gargallo and Central Arkansas’ Marli van Heerden are the only repeat all-academic picks, and Abilene Christian’s Illeana Mocciola rounded out the first team.
Northwestern State led the way with three all-academic selections as Ela Iwaniuk was voted to the second team, joined by Southeastern Louisiana’s Katya Cornejo, New Orleans’ Trang Dao, McNeese’s Charoline Erlandsson, Abilene Christian’s Jordan Henry and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Maria Maldonado. Cornejo.
The average GPA of the all-academic squads is 3.84 with three individuals boasting a perfect 4.0 figure: Yamalapalli, Cornejo, an engineering technology major, and Maria Maldonado, a finance major.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by the head coach, sports information director and an 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 named to the All-Conference First 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.
2019 Southland Women's Tennis All-Academic Teams
Student-Athlete of the Year: Sahaja Yamalapalli, Sam Houston State
First Team
| Name |
Class |
School |
Hometown |
Major |
GPA |
| Sahaja Yamalapalli^* |
So. |
Sam Houston State |
Hyderabad, India |
Food Science & Nutrition |
4.00 |
| Lusine Chobanyan* |
Jr. |
Sam Houston State |
Yerevan, Armenia |
Accounting |
3.82 |
| Emilija Dancetovic* |
Jr. |
Northwestern State |
Belgrade, Serbia |
Business Administration |
3.80 |
| Judit Castillo Gargallo*2 |
Jr. |
Northwestern State |
Teruel, Spain |
Heath & Exercise Science |
3.93 |
| Illeana Mocciola* |
So. |
Abilene Christian |
Rio Negro, Argentina |
Management |
3.81 |
| Marli Van Heerden*2 |
Sr. |
Central Arkansas |
George, South Africa |
Accounting |
3.79 |
Second Team
| Name |
Class |
School |
Hometown |
Major |
GPA |
| Katya Cornejo |
So. |
Southeastern Louisiana |
Aguascalientes, Mexico |
Engineering Technology |
4.00 |
| Trang Dao |
Sr. |
New Orleans |
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |
Exercise Physiology |
3.70 |
| Charoline Erlandsson |
Sr. |
McNeese |
Stockholm, Sweden |
Management |
3.72 |
| Jordan Henry |
Sr. |
Abilene Christian |
Oklahoma City, Okla. |
Communication Disorders |
4.00 |
| Ela Iwaniuk |
Jr. |
Northwestern State |
Konarskie, Poland |
Physical Sciences |
3.53 |
| Maria Maldonado |
Jr. |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
El Ejido, Spain |
Finance |
4.00 |
^Student-Athlete of the Year
*-Automatic Selection
2-Two-Time All-Academic Selection