BATON ROUGE — Four LSU men’s tennis players were named to the 2003 Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll on Thursday as a total of 51 student-athletes garnered the award handed out by league commissioner Mike Slive.
“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.”
LSU’s Bryan Fisher, Jason Hazley and Sebastian Rutka each earned the first SEC Academic Honor Roll accolades of their collegiate careers on Thursday, while former Tiger athlete Dan Kiernan received his fourth-consecutive SEC Academic honor. Kiernan, who competed for LSU from 1998-2002, graduated in December after leading the Tigers to four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
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.
A total of 51 student-athletes were named to the 2003 SEC Men’s Tennis Academic Honor Roll with South Carolina topping the list with a total of seven players on the academic roster. Florida, Georgia and Mississippi State finished close behind with seven honorees.
The 19th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will next be in action on Saturday, May 10, as the Tigers face off against the South Alabama Jaguars in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament held at the Goldring Tennis Stadium on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans.
2003 SEC Men’s Tennis Academic Honor Roll (LSU Players only)
NAME CLASS MAJOR
Bryan Fisher Junior Marketing
Jason Hazley Sophomore Undeclared
Daniel Kiernan Senior Marketing
Sebastian Rutka Junior Public Relations