July 10, 2012
San Antonio – Lisa Dausin provided the St. Mary’s tennis program renewed life in her first year on the job, leading the men and women to numerous successes.
Chief among those triumphs? A commitment to excellence in the classroom.
The St. Mary’s men’s and tennis programs each have been recognized by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association as All-Academic Teams, while the squads combined to produce 11 student-athletes to earn ITA Scholar Athlete status, it was recently announced.
Seniors Angelique De Oliveira (Wattrelos, France), Erica Carmona (Converse, Texas) and Kelly Cooper (San Antonio) were honored from the women’s team, as were Elisha Bryant (Jr., Plano, Texas), Mia Jupe and Valentine Lambrechts (Jr., Belgium). From the men’s squad, Marcin Marczewski (Sr., Warsaw, Poland), Nestor Moreno (Sr., Bogota, Colombia), Carlos Olea (So., Matamoros, Mexico), Andrej Klipa (Jr., Belgrade, Serbia) and Nico Moreno (So., Bogota, Colombia) all were awarded.
The All-Academic Team honor goes to any team that maintains a 3.20 cumulative grade-point average, while individuals must maintain a 3.50 GPA to be eligible.
For Dausin, she wasn’t the least surprised that the men’s renewed success on the court came while excelling in the classroom.
“I truly believe there is a direct correlation between a student who is teachable and an athlete who is coachable,” she said. “Our guys showed a hunger for knowledge in both areas and obviously put it to good use. I think it’s only fitting that in the same year they broke into the top 50 national rankings for their efforts on court would also be the year they received national recognition for their diligence in the classroom.
“Our men earned those honors and I simply could not be more proud of them.”
For the women, Dausin sees this kind of recognition as the foundation for the standard they are setting for themselves.
“I think the women’s team this year had tremendous leadership running deep into the lineup,” she said. “It became obvious very early in the year that these girls were driven to excel on and off the court. They set the bar high for our women’s teams who will follow. They proved themselves as worthy opponents on the court and then followed that act by earning national honors for their hard work in the classroom. I have so much pride and appreciation for how they have represented themselves, our program and most of all our University.”
In Dausin’s first year at the helm, she led the men to a No. 50 national ranking – their first national ranking on record – and to a 10-win season that represented the most wins on record for the program since 1964.
The men advanced all the way to the Heartland Conference semifinals, while the women advanced to the conference championship match in a bounce-back year that saw them post their best season in a decade. The Lady Rattlers won nine matches, tied for their most wins since 2002.