BATON ROUGE – LSU junior Neal Skupski and ULM senior Claire Clark were named the top players on the 2011 Louisiana Sports Writers Association college tennis teams announced late Saturday.
The team was based on nominations submitted by the sports information directors of the tennis playing schools in the state.
Joining Skupski in earning top honors was Idan Mark of Tulane, who was selected Newcomer of the Year. UNO’s Hossam Meligy of UNO was named the Freshman of the Year and Xavier’s Alan Green was named the men’s Coach of the Year.
On the women’s side, with Clark is teammate Leitha Gaigher chosen as Freshman of the Year, while their mentor, Terrance De Jongh, was named Coach of the Year. Louisiana Tech’s Elne Barnard was named the Newcomer of the Year.
Skupski, from Liverpool, England was part of the No. 8 doubles team in the ITA rankings and was 84th in singles for the Tigers. He notched three wins over ranked opponents and was named second-team All-SEC for the third consecutive year. Skupski and doubles partner Sebastian Carlsson defeated eight nationally ranked opponents. The No. 8 doubles ranking qualifies him for automatic All-American status.
Mark, a sophomore from Hod Hasharon, Israel, was also chosen C-USA Newcomer and first-team C_USA in doubles and second team in singles. He was ranked by the ITA as the eighth-ranked freshman/newcomer while playing No. 1 in both singles and doubles.
Freshman Meligy, who came to UNO from Egypt, posted a 15-4 singles record as a non-scholarship member of the Division I squad. In his first tournament of his college career, he won four straight matches to advance to the finals.
Coach Green of Xavier continued his outstanding job leading the Golf Rush to its third consecutive berth in the NAIA National Championships and the program’s first top 10 ranking (8). His team’s ranking in the top 10 of a final poll was the first for any team at the school since 1997-98.
On the women’s side, Clark, from Bossier City, La., was a unanimous choice for the Warhawks as POY. She posted an 18-1 singles mark and a 19-1 doubles record in earning both All-Sun Belt singles and doubles first-team. Clark lost just four sets all spring and let the nation’s number two player in the third set when the match was called due to darkness.
Her teammate, Gaigher, from South Africa, also had a good singles mark for ULM of 16-3, winning 16-of-her final 17 matches – 15 in straight sets.
Barnard for the Lady Techsters made her first season a good one as the South African played the No. 1 singles position the entire season as she led Tech to its first winning season in 15 years.
Coach of the Year De Jongh of ULM led the Warhawks to an 18-2 overall record, equaling the best win percentage in school history (90.0 percent). ULM defeated five Louisiana opponents by a combined score of 27-6 and had four players named to the All-Sun Belt singles team. ULM peaked at No. 46 in the ITA rankings.
Joining Skupski and Mark on the men’s first team are: Hassan Abbas of Xavier, Dmitry Kozionov of Nicholls, Sebastian Carlsson of LSU and Abdelrahman Zaki of UNO.
With Clark and Gaigher on the women’s first team are: Emily Levy of Tulane, Julie Mazinova of Louisiana-Lafayette, Martina Rubesova of Northwestern State and Ebie Wilson of LSU.
LSWA All-LOUISIANA COLLEGE TENNIS TEAM
MENS FIRST TEAM
Name, School/Class/Hometown/Notes
Idan Mark, Tulane/So./Hod Hasharon, Israel/C-USA Newcomer, C-CUSA 1st Team Singles
Neal Skupski, LSU/Jr./Liverpool, England/2nd Team All-SEC, Part of No. 8 ranked doubles
Sebastian Carlsson, LSU/Sr./Uppsala, Sweden/Part of No. 8 ranked doubles, team best 22 singles wins
Dmitry Kozionov, Nicholls/So./Ivhevsk, Russia/All-SLC; LSWA state FOY in 2010
Hassan Abbas, Xavier/Sr./Saltaire, England/All-La. Newcomer in 2010; NAIA All-American
Abdelrahman Zaki, UNO/Jr./Egypt/15-2 singles record, 10-4 in doubles
Player of the Year – Neal Skupski, LSU
Voting – Skupski 6, Idan Mark (TU) 2
Freshman of the Year – Hossam Meligy, UNO
Voting – Meligy 4, Amir Rahbar (XU) 2, Shayann Vaezzadeh (Nicholls) 1, No vote 1
Newcomer of the Year – Idan Mark, Tulane
Voting – Mark 7, Palash Tiwari (Nicholls) 1
Coach of the Year – Alan Green, Xavier (NO)
Voting – Green 6, Mark Booras (Tulane) 2
Men’s Second Team
Hossam Meligy, UNO; Julien Guthier, LSU; Joe Young, Tulane; Palash Tiwari, Nicholls; Zach Taylor, Xavier; Yannick Mandel, Louisiana-Lafayette.
WOMENS FIRST TEAM
Name, School/Class/Hometown/Notes
Claire Clark, ULM/Sr./Bossier City, La./18-1 singles, All-SBC singles, doubles
Martina Rubesova, Northwestern State/Jr./Ustinad Laben, Czech Republic/1st SLC doubles 2nd singles
Julie Mazinova, Louisiana-Lafayette/Sr./Pilsen, Czech Republic/20 match wins, 2nd year
Letha Gaigher, ULM/Fr./Durbanville, S. Africa/All-SBC singles, 16-3 singles
Ebie Wilson, LSU/So./Mobile, Ala./Team best 12 singles wins in spring
Emma Levy, Tulane/So./Princeton Junction, N.J./22 singles wins; No. 17 Southern Region
Player of the Year – Claire Clark, ULM
Voting – Clark 9
Freshman of the Year – Letha Gaigher, ULM
Voting – Gaigher 5, Lois Alexis (SU) 2, Yvette Vlaar (LSU) 1, No vote 1
Newcomer of the Year – Elne Barnard, Louisiana Tech
Voting – Only nominee
Coach of the Year – Terrence De Jongh, ULM
Voting — De Jongh 8, Luc Godin (NW St.) 1
Women’s Second Team
Vivian Polak, ULM; Whitney Wolf, LSU; Carlista Mohammed, Southern; Andrea Nedorostova, Northwestern State; Audrey Chelini, Southeastern Louisiana; Amber Garza, UNO; Monica Winkel, ULM