BATON ROUGE — LSU women’s tennis players Joana Vale Costa and Skylar Kuykendall were named ITA Scholar-Athletes for the 2015-16 season, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced Thursday.
Kuykendall completed her eligibility after two seasons in Baton Rouge. The textile, apparel design and merchandising major holds a 3.624 cumulative GPA. On the court, the Jasper, Alabama native clinched four Southeastern Conference wins over ranked opponents and even a career-high ranked win over No. 27 Caroline Brinson of Georgia.
Vale Costa holds a 3.646 cumulative GPA in sports administration. The Lisbon, Portugal native led the way for LSU on the top court throughout the 2015-16 season. Vale Costa became just the fourth player in school history to reach the NCAA Singles Championships in consecutive seasons.
To earn ITA Scholar-Athlete Status, a player must be a varsity letter winner, have a grade point average of at least 3.5 for the current academic year and have been enrolled at his present school for at least two semesters.
The ITA recognized more than 4,200 scholar-athletes in 2016 across all divisions of college tennis.
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