July 17, 2015
2015 Women's Division I ITA Academic Awards
SKILLMAN, N.J. - San José State's women's tennis team was recognized for its success in the classroom by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Thursday, when the Spartans received All-Academic Team distinction and landed seven players on the Scholar-Athlete list.
San José State was given the team award for a fourth consecutive season, extending a program-best streak, and the seven individual honorees also set a new record high.
Senior Jessica Willett became the first Spartan to capture Scholar-Athlete honors four times in her career, building on her previous school record.
Fellow senior Julianna Bacelar became the second player in program history to be a three-time Scholar Athlete by earning the award in each of her three seasons at San José State.
Sophomores Gaelle Rey and Marie Klocker were recognized for a second consecutive season, while junior Justine Deleval and freshmen Abbie Pahz and Malin Cubukcu graced the list for the first time.
San José State has increased its number of award winners in each of head coach Sylvain Malroux's four season's at the helm. The Spartans have now received 22 academic awards (18 individual, four team) from the ITA under his watch.
In total, the ITA named 451 All-Academic teams and 2,566 Scholar Athletes in 2015.
The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any member program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale). All eligible student-athletes whose names appear on the NCAA, NAIA or Junior/Community College eligibility form and have competed in one or more varsity matches must average into the GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2014 and spring 2015).
In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must meet the following criteria: 1.) be a varsity letter winner, 2.) have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, and 3.) have been enrolled at their present school for at least 2 semesters (including freshman thorough senior year).
The announcement came on the heels of Thursday's Academic All-Mountain West release, when Sybille Gauvain, Bacelar, Cubukcu, Klocker, Pahz and Rey were honored by the conference.