BATON ROUGE — Senior Michael Venus and freshman Neal Skupski of the LSU men’s tennis team earned Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-America honors, the ITA announced on Friday.
Venus claimed Singles All-America honors, and along with doubles partner Neal Skupski, earned doubles All-America status as well.
Both Venus and Skupski earned automatic All-American status through their seedings in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. Venus played the NCAA Singles Tournament as the No. 7 seed and competed in doubles as the No. 3 seed with Skupski.
To earn ITA Singles All-American status, a player can either enter the NCAA Singles Championships as a top-16 seed, reach the round of 16 in the NCAA Singles Championships or earn a top-20 spot in the final Campbell/ITA Rankings.
To capture a position as an ITA Doubles All-American, a player must earn a top-eight seed in the NCAA Doubles Championships, reach the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championships or finish among the top-10 tandems in the ITA’s Final Rankings.
As a duo, Venus and Skupski finished as the nation’s No. 4 tandem. In singles, Venus held onto a top-10 spot as he capped his senior career at No. 7.
Venus adds the All-America honors to his growing list of senior accomplishments.
The 6-3 Auckland, New Zealand native captured the 2008 D’Novo All-American Singles title to kick off his final season with the Tigers. When dual action rolled around in the spring, Venus notched a 15-6 record and 7-3 conference mark en route to earning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and First-Team All-SEC honors.
Skupski adds the ITA honor to a standout freshman year in which he notched a 13-8 record, earned Second-Team All-SEC honors and earned a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team.
Men’s Singles Rankings
Administered by the ITA
NCAA Division I Tennis
May 29, 2009 (FINAL)
Rank, Player, School,
1, Oleksandr Nedovyesov, Oklahoma State University
2, Arnau Brugues, Univ. of Tulsa
3, John-Patrick Smith, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
4, Bruno Agostinelli, University of Kentucky
5, Robert Farah, Univ. of Southern California
6, Steven Moneke, Ohio State University
7, Michael Venus, LSU
8, Denes Lukacs, Baylor University
9, Bryan Koniecko, Ohio State University
10, Nate Schnugg, University of Georgia
Men’s Doubles Rankings
Administered by the ITA
NCAA Division I Tennis
May 29, 2009 (FINAL)
Rank, Player, Player, School
1, Davey Sandgren John-Patrick Smith, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
2, Dominic Inglot, Michael Shabaz, University of Virginia
3, Bram tenBerge, Jonas Berg, Univ. of Mississippi
4, Michael Venus, Neal Skupski, LSU
5, Cory Parr, Steven Forman, Wake Forest University
6, Alexey Tsyrenov Tim Puet, Auburn University
7, Jamie Hunt, Nate Schnugg, University of Georgia
8, Omar Altmann, Bassam Beidas, Pepperdine
9, Conor Pollock, Austin Krajicek, Texas A&M University
10, Robert Farah, Steve Johnson, Univ. of Southern California
Venus, Skupski Named Tennis All-Americas