BATON ROUGE — Five LSU women’s tennis players were named to the 2002 Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll on Tuesday, as a total of 55 student-athletes garnered the award handed out by league commissioner Roy Kramer.
“In my opinion, this is the most important award that our players can receive,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “We want them to come to LSU and earn a quality education as well as being an athlete. I’m extremely proud of each of these five girls for their hard work in the classroom.”
Four Lady Tiger seniors and one former player were each honored on Tuesday as Tami Botts, Bruna Colosio, Kelly Craycraft, Amy McIlhaney and Mandy Rice earned SEC Academic Honor Roll accolades. LSU’s Rice completed her four years of eligibility after the 2001-02 dual-match season.
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 Botts, Colosio and Craycraft each earned their third SEC Honor Roll accomplishment on Tuesday. Botts finished with a 3.43 overall grade-point in sociology and political science, while Colosio earned a 3.66 mark in interior design and Craycraft notched a 3.32 GPA in mass communication.
McIlhaney, the Lady Tigers’ senior from Marietta, Ga., earned her second-consecutive SEC Academic Honor Roll accolade by maintaining a 3.22 overall grade-point average in marketing. She transferred to LSU prior to her sophomore season after spending a year at UNC-Greensboro.
The LSU women’s tennis team will next be in action on Thursday, as the Lady Tigers challenge the 17th-ranked Kentucky in the opening round of the SEC Tournament at 2 p.m. in Columbia, S.C.