BATON ROUGE — Five LSU men’s tennis players were named to the 2002 Southeastern Conference’s Academic Honor Roll on Tuesday, as a total of 52 student-athletes garnered the award handed out by league commissioner Roy Kramer.
“These guys did a great job of combining their athletics and academics,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “They don’t get nearly enough credit for their school work and it seems that the only time anyone talks about athletes is when something negative happens. It’s just good to see that these guys were able to show that they can wear both hats.”
Dan Kiernan, LSU’s senior No. 1-singles player, joined four former Tigers on Tuesday in joining the SEC Academic Honor Roll. The All-American from Newcastle, England, maintained a 3.27 grade-point average in marketing to earn his third-consecutive SEC Academic Honor.
The prestigious annual awards are given to the student-athletes that can meet three criteria in the classroom. They must have a 3.0 grade-point average for either the past year or for their career, they must be a sophomore or higher in academic classification and they must have 24 semester hours countable towards a degree.
LSU’s Jonathan Hurd, Anthony Mateljan, John Gray Pou and Ajay Ramaswami are the former Tigers that earned SEC Academic Honor Roll accolades on Tuesday.
The four LSU men’s tennis players were members of the 2000-01 squad.
Hurd earned the achievement with a 3.46 GPA in law school, while Pou maintained a 3.6 mark in general business and Mateljan garnered the honor for his work in marketing. Mateljan finished last year with an impressive 3.19 grade-point average. Ramaswami, LSU’s 2001 singles All-American, graduated with a 3.41 GPA in international trade and finance.
The LSU men’s tennis team will next be in action on Thursday as the Tigers challenge No. 18 Alabama in the first round of the SEC Tournament at 8 a.m. in Knoxville, Tenn.