Aug. 12, 2007

Columbia, Mo. - The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced today that the University of Missouri Tiger Tennis Team had been named an ITA All-Academic Team.

To gain ITA All-Academic status, the Tigers had to maintain a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or higher (on a 4.00 scale). The Missouri Women's tennis team did this for the fourth consecutive year. Four Tigers (Raquel Wagner, Yelena Olshanskaya, Kaitlin Dunham, and Charlotte Bellis) were also named Individual ITA Scholar Athletes.

The Tigers tied for second in the conference with the most Big 12 players named to the prestigious All-Academic team behind only Oklahoma State. In order to earn individual ITA Scholar-Athlete status, players had to carry a GPA of 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, be varsity letter winners, and have been enrolled at their present school for at least two semesters. Earlier in the year, four Tigers (Amanda Pratzel, Erica Josbena, Charlotte Bellis, and Yelena Olshanskaya) had also earned Academic All-Big 12 First Team honors.

"Things like this make us very proud of our team," said head coach Blake Starkey. "We have always recruited bright young ladies, and that won't change any time soon. Our players do some great things on the court. But what a lot of people never see are sacrifices they make so they can do this well in the classroom. And they do that so they can ultimately graduate with high marks and be positioned well when they move into graduate school, medical school, or whatever or move out into the world professionally."